Celebrating the Kid in You

There’s something about a cape or a cloak that brings out the child in just about everyone.  Put on a black Batman cape and suddenly you are Batman, roaring down the darkened city streets in your bullet-proof Bat Mobile, heading towards the center of Gotham and the Joker.

Choose a red cape and the adventure takes a totally different direction. You’re SuperMan (or SuperWoman), soaring through the air, high above cities and farms and railroads, zooming to save a busload of children tottering on the edge of a bridge, hundreds of feet above a river swollen with the run off of melting snow.

If you’re a wizard named Gandolf, your cape starts out gray. You’re leading a ragged band of seemingly mismatched fellows to destroy a ring. When you engage the legendary Balrog in a fight and fall into what appears to be a bottomless pit, your friends leave you behind in sorrow, thinking you’re surely dead. When you finally reappear, you’re now clothed in a white cloak and you have super wizard powers.

If you stop to think about it, a lot of famous characters, real and imaginary, have sported a cloak or a cape. Count Dracula pulled his silk-lined cape across his mouth to hide his terrifying fangs from potential victims. The Three Musketeers raced through the countryside on their sweating steeds, their blue capes whipping and snapping in the wind behind them as they pursued justice (or ran from injustice). The Count of Monte Cristo commanded respect wherever he went, dressed in the woven cloak of a rich and powerful man.

So, whether you decide to imitate a cartoon hero like Batman and Superman, or you prefer to emulate a literary hero or villain like Gandolf, Dracula, the Three Musketeers, or the Count of Monte Cristo, just be sure to remember your cape or cloak when you head out to the party.