Lost Boys, Lost Girls… Lost Humanity

Lost Boys, disillusionment, Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, innocence, nostalgia, eternal youth, and killing. 

What does all of the above have in common?

Hang onto your fairy dusticles.

Peter Pan and the Pied Piper are basically caricatures of the Greek god, Pan.

Pan, the Greek god of the wild, hunters, and pastures, took the form of a shepherd playing the lute. According to Greek Mythology, the word “panic” derived from Pan who possessed enormous strength. In the midst of battle, one of Pan’s friends was in danger. To save his friend, the Greek god unleashed a savage cry that frightened the enemy into retreating and saved his buddy. Hence, “Pan”-ic.

Let me hear your battle cry.

The Pied Piper is based on a true story that has been used to explain the disappearance of every child in Hamelin, Germany circa 1284. Legend goes, the Pied Piper was hired to rid the town of rats. Playing his lute a la Pan, he lured the rats to a river where they all drowned. When he went to collect the bill, the townsfolk refused to pay. The Pied Piper then played his lute again luring the town’s children to the river where they all drowned.

The saying “Pay the Piper” is a result of the Pied Piper tale. Everything was jolly until the townsfolk turned up their noses at the lute-wielding wizard.

Pay your debts or your kids die. Someone let Anakin Skywalker know that he has a new friend.

Pay the friggin’ Piper.

The OG Peter Pan requires the reader to dismiss all of their knowledge of the cartoon and the Robin Williams (RIP) versions of the dagger-wielding boy who didn’t want to grow up. 

In the same vein as the Pied Piper, Peter Pan killed kids. To keep them from growing up into adults like Captain Hook—the original Lost Boy who left Neverland and came back an adult to start a war with Peter Pan to release the other Lost Boys—Peter Pan would lure kids away from their homes to Neverland, where they allegedly couldn’t grow up. 

In the original play written by a whack-a-doodle named Barrie, Peter Pan killed any kid that he perceived to be “growing up” to keep their innocence intact forever. In a sense, he panicked. Barrie’s version is only slightly different than Disney’s “Hook.”

Barrie had an older brother who died in his teens. His mom found solace in the fact that her boy kept his youthful innocence intact. In other words, Barrie’s mom may have been a psycho and Barrie decided to go full-tilt with the youthful innocence in death thing he had learned from her. 

Let’s unpack this Charlie Foxtrot. 

The stories of Pan and Pan-archetypes depict battles of good and evil. Greek mythology is unclear as to whether Pan was a benevolent god or whether he was a sexual creeper with goat legs.

But everyone has to grow up.

Like all the old timers say, “That’s life, kid.”

We’d all love to be 25 forever. I know I would. At some point, we learn that we can’t spend our entire lives chasing dragons.

The military is a Neverland of sorts, a collective god with the power of life and death. It allows grown men and women to play with guns and explosives in ways that most civilians couldn’t fathom. And that shit is fun!

But.

There’s no escaping the Piper.

Peter Pan is like the infantry version of Matthew McConaughey from Dazed and Confused. 

“I keep getting older, they stay the same age.” -Creeper Pan-esque McConaughey

Peter Pan Syndrome is best described as a thing. Although not formally recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), some psychologists do recognize it as a series of behavioral patterns where the patient is unwilling to grow up (Lebow). Peter Pan Syndrome was first coined in 1983 in a book written by Dan Kiley called “The Peter Pan Syndrome: Men Who Have Never Grown Up” (Lebow).

Today, we see adult children running around, unchecked, unguided, and unhinged. Real-life Peter Pans and Penelope Pans.

Lost Boys. 

Lost Girls.

Lost humanity.

When I got out of the Marines, I was a Lost Boy. I didn’t want to grow up. I had lost years of my life to the sandbox and wanted to live it up without adulting. It was fun, but I had to pay the Piper eventually like we all do. 

At some point in our lives, we find ourselves waking up and not recognizing the person in the mirror. When we cling to the past we lose direction moving forward. We lose ourselves.

Kill your dragons. Just like in that one Marine commercial.

At the end of Barrie’s version of Peter Pan, he returns to Neverland alone.

Good riddance.

Slay your dragons. 

Don’t end up in Neverland alone.

RIP Rufio 

BANGARANG!

Lebow, Hilary. 2021. Extracted from: 

https://psychcentral.com/health/peter-pan-syndrome

______________________________

Jared Prewitt is a husband, father, marine, author, carpenter/teacher/coach, and lover of great stories. 

Jared was a Sergeant in the Marine Corps with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines based out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He participated in the Battle of Ramadi (Iraq) as a Designated Marksman from 2006-2007 and as a Squad Leader in the Battle of Garmsir (Afghanistan) in 2008. 

After being honorably discharged in 2009 having served five years, Jared moved to Colorado and married in 2011. He has a Bachelor’s in Business and a Masters in Writing. You can find him bowling, golfing, camping, hunting, or fishing when he’s not around his family. 

Check out his other work on Instagram @cold_steel_collective or at www.jareprewittwritesstuff.com. 

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.