Play helps us to escape from an eternal return that goes nowhere, endlessly repeating the same thing. In the grand cosmos of life, as we have seen, we do keep cycling around, but play provides the pause that refreshes, the adventure that essentially lets us escape momentarily from one merry-go-round before we get back on another. We can see that Mary’s magical play in the animated world also upsets the normal routine of that world, too. The fox-hunters are surprised by the out of context carousel horses, and one of the hunters lands, along with his horse, soaked in the middle of a stream. They are startled out of their normal routine by the sight of the merry-go-round horses sans merry-go-round. The fox is surprised, too, and he gets rescued by Bert. Since the fox is a trickster animal, it is only fitting that a fellow trickster, Bert, would lend him a hand! Then during the ensuing horserace, Mary asks the jockeys to pass and they agree to do so. Mary's request is so outrageous and unexpected that it breaks up their pattern, their normal mindset, and momentarily stunned, they willingly oblige her, which results in her winning the race. After letting Mary pass, they are slightly confused by their own behavior, too. Play often involves taking things out of context and this is exactly what has occurred here.

Some of Mary’s magic comes from the confusion that ensues from these unexpected changes in context. Mary takes advantage of these confused states, known as transderivational searches (TDSs) in Ericksonian and NLP parlance. When we are confused, it is uncomfortable. As we seek to make meaning of something, we essentially enter a little trance, and our attention is internally focused, searching for meaning. If someone offers us a meaning that seems sensible, we often take it to relieve the tension of not knowing. In this way, Mary is able get others to adopt her suggestions more easily, leading them to new attitudes and behaviors.

“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”

After the horse race, one of the reporters says to Mary, “there probably aren’t words to describe your feeling.” Mary notes that “On the contrary, there’s a perfectly wonderful word.” And we are introduced to the word “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” which luckily for the Sherman brothers rhymes with a whole bunch of other words, like precocious and atrocious! In the course of the song Mary and Bert explain that “it’s a word to say when you don’t know what else to say.” Bert sings with Mary and we find out the history of this word, which has helped Bert to sound intelligent and to level the social playing field, allowing this bricoleur to take tea with dukes and maharajas!

This song, along with the entire chalk picture outing, is carnivalesque in nature. Familiarity, freedom, and a positive outlook on the world abound. Inversion of the normal occurs and differences between categories disappear for a short time. “There is a complete liberation from the seriousness of life” (Bakhtin, 1963/1968, p. 246). It’s the lighter side of liminality, you might say.

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious changed Bert’s life and also one of the Pearleys, the button-clad entertainers who accompany Mary and Bert, and so "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" comes with a warning: “you better use it carefully for it can change your life,” because it changes the normal way of things in sometimes unexpected ways. Play often does this, too, and the word bricolage, for me has had a similar life-changing effect.

Thunder and lightning abruptly end their song and the outing, which is archetypally appropriate, since the planetary archetype Uranus is associated with lightning and sudden unexpected occurrences, and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” both the word and the song, have this quality, too.

It then begins to rain, which washes the chalk world away around them, Mary, Bert, and the children find themselves back at the entrance to the park. Mary laments the demise of the drawings, but Bert exclaims, "there’s more where they came from" (the unlimited imaginal realm of the unconscious). Bert has decided to change jobs anyway, since it is now perfect weather for selling hot chestnuts. Bert is flexible, he adapts easily to different situations and takes changes in stride, unlike George Banks who is rigidly unable to tolerate any change in his routine. Again, a contrast between pedomorphic Bert and geronotomorphic George. Bert can be said to represent George’s shadow. Jung, who coined the term shadow, also was quick to note that the shadow contains positive as well as negative qualities.

Back At Home

Because they are soaking wet, Mary insists that the children take their medicine, which Michael opposes. Michael takes it anyway because when Mary pours the medicine out of the bottle, it comes out in three different colors and flavors on their respective spoons. When Jane sees this she actually shrieks. Again, Mary upsets expectations, by doing something totally unexpected, unusual, and Uranian.

“Stay Awake”

The children have had such a good time that they want Mary to stay forever, but she tells them that she will stay until the wind changes. The children are so excited and wound up by their outing that they cannot go to sleep, because “so many lovely things happened today.” Mary enigmatically asks, “Did they?” Her question causes the children to recount the day's activities to help Mary refresh her recollection. As Jane and Michael relate their adventures they are almost reliving the events, which makes the events more real and more vivid for them. This is known in Ericksonian terms as “revivification.” As they tell her about the horse race and Mary flat out states, “a respectable person like me in a horse race . . .” in a tone of disbelief, and she even threatens to call the police. Michael adamantly remarks, but I saw you do it,” and he even reiterates “It did happen, I saw it.”

Mary then changes tactics and exhorts the children to “Stay Awake,” an Ericksonian lullaby if there ever was one. Since they want to stay awake, Mary joins them initially, telling them “suit yourselves,” and she begins to sing “Stay Awake.” As Mary tells them to “stay awake” she simultaneously gives embedded commands about what she wants them to do, using the negative “don’t” before each command, which the unconscious mind ignores. As she paces them consciously, she leads them unconsciously, and the confusion caused by the mixed messages merely adds to the trance state. Although Mary is saying “stay awake,” the qualities of her voice and the song, a lullaby, is soothing and rhythmic. Had Mary really wanted Jane and Michael to stay awake, she would have sung something more upbeat. Mary maintains rapport with the children by engaging their conscious minds with the idea of staying awake, while unconsciously they are paying more attention to the tone, and embedded commands: the message is go to sleep.

Mary is saying things that are true, such as the pillow being soft and deep, and the moon drifting in the sky—things with which the children can agree. Then Mary leads them by telling them not to do what she wants them to do. This is confusing to them, as it may be to you, but this is part of the point. Their conscious minds are diverted and she suggests to the unconscious to go to sleep. She subtly uses tone of voice shifts and other nonverbal cues to mark out her commands. Mary also has time on her side—it was a busy day, so eventually through the technique and her voice tone, they will go to sleep.

A Cheerful Breakfast

Although the next scene may be the next morning, this is unclear; it may also be some number of days later. Admiral Boom decides to “set things up a bit,” and puts in a double charge of powder into the time gun. The Banks house is particularly cheerful, which is a change from the usual, and makes George uneasy. Winifred remarks to George that ever since he “hired Mary Poppins, the most extraordinary thing seem to have come over the household,” it seems to be more happy and harmonious. But George dislikes any change in his routine, even a positive one. The cook and Ellen are now getting along, instead of fighting and even singing, although their singing does sound rather grating. ∆RC[mp26]

When the children bring flowers to their mother, singing " Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," they attempt to tell their father about this wonderful new word. George tries to unsuccessfully to pronounce it a couple of times, and then frustratedly remarks, “whatever that infernal thing is.” They tell him “It’s a word to say when you don’t know what to say,” and grumbling, George says “yes, well I always know what to say.” George dislikes all of “this unseemly hullabaloo.”

George is cross, although he denies it and replies: “I am in a perfectly equitable mood.” To him, the house is not “cheerful and pleasant” but has crossed over into “just plain giddy irresponsibility.” Meanwhile, these irresponsibly cheerful people take their posts for the time gun, while George does nothing. After things have settled down and stopped moving, including the piano which comes to rest in front of him, George hits a few of the keys. George then remarks:

I expect a certain decorum and don’t propose standing idly by while that woman Mary Poppins undermines the discipline in this household. There’s something odd and I mean extremely odd about the behavior in this household since that woman arrived and I want you to know that I’ve noticed it.

George then tells Winifred that she needs to get the piano tuned: “When I sit down to an instrument I expect to have it in tune.” Winifred then delivers one of the absolute truths of the whole movie: “But George you don’t play.” Although George replies, “Madam that is entirely beside the point” as he storms out of the house, Winifred has hit the nail on the head. It is precisely the point—George doesn’t play! He is stuck in a routine, a slave to order and schedule. ∆RC[mp27]

A Change Of Plans

The children start out to do some errands with Mary Poppins, but along the way, they encounter Andrew the dog at the entrance to the park, and their plans change. Mary has talked with Andrew and finds out that Uncle Albert is having problems again. Bert is already there when they arrive, and is concerned about whether the children should come in, since what Uncle Albert has is contagious.

“I Love to Laugh”

Uncle Albert is up on the ceiling in a laughing fit, which he cannot control or stop. The children and Bert begin to laugh as well, while Mary warns that “its really quite serious.” As Uncle Albert sings “I Love to Laugh,” Mary and Bert join in, singing about different kinds of laughter, demonstrating the types as they go. Bert then floats up and joins Uncle Albert for a pranksterish midair pas de deux. When the children float up, too, they all begin joking and wordplay ensues. They continue to joke and act silly, while Mary continues to act seriously, and says “It’s the most disgraceful sight I’ve ever seen or my name isn’t Mary Poppins.”

Then Bert riffs off of her, saying “speaking of names” and he begins a joke: “I know a man with a wooden leg named Smith,” and Uncle Albert delivers the punch line, “What’s the name of his other leg?” Mary remains serious throughout, serving as a counterpoint and thus allowing the others to be positively giddy. Then Mary announces that it is teatime, and since she will not have her schedule interrupted, Mary levitates the table and officiates, as they all enjoy a tea party on the ceiling,

Excursion into Joking Matters

It's Catchy

Laughter shows and produces affiliation with others, a sense of closeness and mutual understanding, and laughter helps us to get through socially difficult moments. When Mary and the children arrive at Uncle Albert’s house, Bert expresses concern about whether they should come in, because laughter is contagious, as we see in the “I Love to Laugh” song. Like yawning, laughter is infectious, and as Mary Poppins remarks, this infectiousness can be quite serious.

In late January of 1962, for example, in what is now Tanzania, a laughter epidemic occurred which resulted in the periodic shutting down of schools and quarantining of infected villages. The initial outbreak affected 217 out of 10,000 villagers, and by the time the epidemic had abated in June of 1964, “This plague of laughter spread through villages “like a prairie fire,” forcing the temporary closing of more than 14 schools and afflicting about 1,000 people in tribes bordering Lake Victoria in Tanganyika and Uganda” (Provine, 2000, p. 131).

Laughter is at times immediate and involuntary, sometimes we literally "can’t help it." “Contagious laughter is a compelling display of Homo sapiens, the social mammal. It strips away our veneer of culture and language and challenges the shaky hypothesis that we are rational creatures in full conscious control of our behavior” (Provine, p. 129). ∆RC[mp28]

The Enlightening Benefits of Irrationality and Nonsense

A sense of humor allows us to take things more lightly, providing the distance necessary to help us have freedom of movement. Mindess (1971) calls this having a “god’s eye view.” Laughter and a sense of humor open up more choices in thought and behavior, and more spontaneity, joy, and freedom result. Oscar Wilde said “life is too important to be taken seriously,” and humor blends both playfulness and seriousness. “Our heartiest laughter is evoked when the humorous outlook is brought to bear on an area of genuine concern.” (Mindess, p. 120) We need to be able to take things playfully, so we have enough room to be able to deal with them effectively. Mindess notes:

Continued on page 6