Looking out of the Johari Window and some guy called Atreyu

My all time favourite film just has to be "The Never Ending Story." I love everything that is, fable like, fantasy and make believe. It stimulates my imagination and gives me a rush of escapism. I love the story line and the characters, so much so, that when I was living in Berlin two Summers ago, when I walked into an 80s' vintage shop and spotted an autograph of Noah Hathaway, the lead actor who played Atreyu , I nearly passed out when the owner told me he had visited the store only a month before.

Noah is now a tattooist, and hasn't acted in a while, but boy did I fancy him and he was definitely my hero at age seven! The little boy with the bows and arrows slung across his back, was entrusted with a huge responsibility, to save the dying empress from "The Nothing" which was destroying ‘Fantasia', while overcoming the most incredulous obstacles ever. I can still remember going through a roller coaster of emotions while watching it. Balling my eyes out when the horse "Artax" let the ‘Swamp of Sadness' take over him and hearing the "Rock Biter" tell of when he couldn't save his friends, being immersed in fear when ‘Atreyu' faced ‘Morla' the giant turtle and was chased by Gmork the wolf and feeling utterly confused when ‘Atreyu', came to terms with the reflection of his true self in the Magic Mirror gate.

That's something I can totally relate to, I guess a lot of us can. How many of us are completely and entirely happy with WHO we are....how many of us actually KNOW who we really are? I remember thinking, how scary it must be to think of yourself as being one way, but that the world actually sees you in a totally different manner, when I heard the following dialogue in the film : "Kind people find out that they are cruel, brave men discover that they are really cowards. Confronted with their true selves most men run away screaming." Kinda makes you a bit more aware of your actions and maybe step it down a notch doesn't it? Or kinda makes you think 2008's is now here and you'd better figure out who the hell you're going be this year round! Either way, you first have to learn to love the person staring back at you when you look into the mirror, maybe we'll never really know for certain who we are, but everyday we find out a little bit more is closer to some sort of happiness.