The antics of Lexin Capital and the Machiavellian Town Center Foundation burble around in my head endlessly ,as we seek to unravel their super-puzzling approach to the Care and Management of Celebration Town Center. Depending on the days events our observations, like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, bounce back and forth between a firm conviction that Metin Negrin has a mind of Madoffian Brilliance and yet, MAYBE The Town Center Foundation should be simply misted with nutrients and water twice a week. It is like an ENDLESS game of Candyland, without the structural soundness of the ORIGINAL gameboard but WITH all of the sudden recurring catastrophes which gave Candyland its essential infinite loopy ENDLESSNESS, firmly establishing its reputation-along with Chutes and Ladders-as one of the MOST to-be-avoided games ever. Don’t I wish our little game of “TownCenter Land” could be put on the top shelf, far out of reach of the children in charge, SO in need of Adult Supervision.

All this talk of “LANDS” steers me back to the creator of lands, The Walt Disney Company, for our purposes ALSO known as The Celebration Company. Because, much as we love to consider Lexin The Source of our continued affliction, I came here, bought here and stayed here because of The Walt Disney Company.
And The Branding of The Walt Disney Company is arguably THE most successful advertising and emotional manipulation campaign since the naming of “Greenland “. I was so addicted to the emotional promise of Disney World that at the tearful end of every bank-busting trip, the FIRST thing I would do-after wedging myself into the middle seat of a crowded flight-was to plot the accumulation of enough cash to return. Given that mindset, I had no more free will than The Manchurian Candidate, a lifetime of Cubby and Karen and that damn sparkling castle having rearranged my synapses.And I am NOT special, there are millions of us who have funded Disney’s rise to power. EMOTION is the basis of the Brand, and The Walt Disney Company knows full well that when Mickey has a four-fingered grip on our hearts and minds, our money will follow.

Where it becomes abusive is when marketing fails to distinguish between delivering a magical week in a Themed Suite-which Disney does every day every year in a FLAWLESS fashion-and using the same methodology to deliver a HOME in a COMMUNITY OF THEIR DESIGN. This requires FAR greater thought and care and responsibility as it is more a MARRIAGE than a “date”. Because we were presented with a CONTRACT here in Celebration, and the Pre-Nuptial agreement was very, very, detailed. Potential residents paid attorneys to review these legal commitments, which of course could not be altered in ANY way no matter what, and then settled back as they found assurance in the fact that THEIR contract was created by The Walt Disney Company, a Corporation (and a carefully crafted brand) which in MANY minds implies a greater warranty and sense of security than the full faith of the United States government. I mean I have Disney Dollars which are worth more today than when I bought them, more than I can say about US Currency.

Back to Lexin Capital, definitely NOT the Walt Disney Company. But the Chain of Custody over the care and maintenance of our property was, in MASSIVE documents, legally attached to the transfer of Celebration Town Center. So while WE had no idea who Lexin Capital was (most of us with ALL our might wish that were STILL the case) The Walt Disney Company provided assurance to us that ALL would continue as before. In their contract that is defined as until the death of the last surviving descendent of Queen Elizabeth II, the present Queen of England. Really.

Up next, Deceptive Advertising.