Walter Mitty was a courageous naval commander, a world-famous surgeon, a fighter pilot, the defendant in a murder trial, and an adventurer who once faced a firing squad.
These adventures were first reported by James Thurber in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” in The New Yorker magazine in 1939. Then, in 1947, Danny Kaye starred in the title role in a technicolor movie with the same name as Thurber’s magazine account.
In fact, this diverse career record existed only in the head of Walter Mitty, hen-pecked husband extraordinaire. Mitty, in turn, was a figment of the imagination of humorist and fiction writer Thurber, who was born on this date, December 8, in 1894.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Thurber was quite shy after he lost an eye at age 7. He gained confidence as a student at Ohio State University where he began trying his hand as a writer. Later, he worked as a freelance writer in Paris where he did coding work for the U. S. Army during World War I.
Thurber joined The New Yorker staff in 1926 when the magazine was just getting started. He shared an office with another writer who was well known as an essayist, children’s fiction writer, and grammarian, E. B. White. Thurber also became known for his humorous drawings, many depicting difficult relationships between husbands and wives.
At the height of his career, Thurber’s one remaining eye began to fail. He was legally blind during much of his adult life, but he continued writing until he died in 1961 (Tomorrow, another blind author: John Milton).
Dreamers such as Walter Mitty are usually dismissed as impractical escapists. But dreams figured significantly the lives of various Bible characters, from Joseph in Genesis---whose dream interpretations won him a favored position in Pharaoh’s court in Egypt---to Joseph in Matthew, who was instructed in a dream to take Mary and the Baby Jesus to safety in Egypt. The prophet Joel saw a day when God’s faithful would see visions and dream dreams. Simon Peter declared this prophecy to be fulfilled when the Holy Spirit came in great power at Pentecost (Acts 2:17, Joel 2:28).
Advent should be a time of dreaming: not the fantasies of Walter Mitty, but envisioning great things that can happen as we take seriously the promise of the coming of the Prince of Peace, whose coming can draw people of all cultures and races together in love and constructive efforts to right the wrongs of the world. This sounds dreamy, but it is not an impossible dream.
Verses for Today
“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).
Each day through New Year’s Day, January 1, 2013, inspirational thoughts will appear on this website, in keeping with Advent, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. These are from my book, Reflections for the Festive Seasons. © 2002. All rights reserved.
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