Toys Are Us
When I was eight years old and attending Camp Meadowbrook one summer, the Barbie Doll came crashing through the cosmic fabric into the hands of almost every little girl I knew. All of my bunkmates got one, but my mother, in keeping with her off-beat nature, gave me a glamorous figure that was not actually an official Barbie, but close. I accepted this with some reservation. I was getting used to being on the outskirts looking in, and we're stuck with the mothers we get. In the end, it probably worked in my favor, this taste for the not-massively-popular. I did get a great turquoise two-wheeler, though, that was in the traditional mold. One of my all time favorites. I love my wheels, speaking of human toys. This year is different. As the gift giving season progresses and the burning desire builds in children's eyes, burning holes in pockets, and filling holes under burning trees, to my surprise, I found myself only briefly slipping into my misanthropic persona lamenting the plethora of plastic shit they play with for a moment, then break or discard. The tiny ones try to eat the stuff. Anyway, I got to thinking instead. It looks as though toys have been around as long as homo sapiens have been children. There's a lot of creative imagination loosed in tinkering with this vast assortment. I do remember, though, that my favorite plaything as a child was upside down chairs covered with blankets, making amber-lit tents to my utter joy, as I crawled in and did what? I know not. I never tired of this game. A ball on a string, a miniature train on a track, structures to erect, rocks to turn, newts to find, songs, stories, games, puzzles -- all the things that make up a child's fantasy world. How many of these became some of mankind's greatest inventions? Emotionally nondeveloped geniuses tinkering in their rooms, then their laboratories, seeing the strange in everything , and creating the magnificent complication of the modern technological age. Does play guarantee the progress of humanity? Toys R me, as Raging Universe demonstrates.
11 Comments:
I was thinking recently about my Evel Kneivel toys since he recently passed away. But my favorite things were always the forts and hideaways I could construct both outside and inside. They used to get pretty elaborate. I loved the idea of secret rooms, secret forts in the trees where we lived a whole different life.
When I was in college I did a summer session at Penn State. There are huge Elms and other enormous old trees around that campus. I remember juggling 5 clubs on the lawn of old main when suddenly this dreadlocked girl dropped out of a big tree and ran toward me, hair whirling like a cyclone did a series of handsprings culminating in a flip to land near me. She said "we've been watching you and we want you to join us in the trees." There was a whole group of sort of hippie gymnasts and they had their own secret little club in these huge trees, dropping between branches, doing acrobatic stunts and moving effortlessly high above the ground. And listening to a different language and set of high stakes rules. I spent my summer high in those trees with those crazy acrobatic girls and boys. It was a real parallel universe. Even the memory thrills me of that dream society. And the memory of her dramatic entrance and my immediate crush too :-). I was discovering the axis mundi, and I was dreaming of the world tree and of the language of trees all around the world.
It was like an earth angel dropping out of the sky and saying "you've been chosen, come on up". Whatever was happening up there immediately became much more important and gorgeous than anything happening on the ground. Somehow I passed my classes. The memory gives me immense comfort. I wonder how many lives of utter strange amazement are happening right nearby and we don't even know it.
Omg, mpk, what a story. Beautiful language.
I know what you mean. I had experiences like this in India. The sensation of suddenly entering another dimension. And I have an ongoing vision of finding a group of people who greet me with knowingness like the mortal world rarely expresses. Smiles with age old knowledge and familiarity beyond the familiar. They bring me into magnificent rooms with sublime music, color, fabric, and food. Secret rooms. Invitations. Yes. I know what you say.
you've been chosen, come on up.
Exactly.
suddenly this dreadlocked girl dropped out of a big tree and ran toward me, hair whirling like a cyclone did a series of handsprings culminating in a flip to land near me. She said "we've been watching you and we want you to join us in the trees."
I love this. The movement. The joy.
I wonder how many lives of utter strange amazement are happening right nearby and we don't even know it.
Maybe it's happening in every life in some way. Matter of degree. Or engagement.
Maybe we should find out. Your prose is a guidepost.
I was thinking about the hidden factor. The ideal worlds we imagine and occasionally encounter almost by accident, as if we can't consciously find them. How much hiding is required to keep these dimensions so beautiful in contrast? Is it because that they are secret that they retain their charm and allure? Enchantment.
It's like when a cave is discovered and the stalactites glimmer with a radiance unique to the first time receiving light.
How much of our lives can practically be spent in these dimensions? And how many others can effectively be involved without social deterioration? Where people remain generous.
I'd surely like to know. Like to go. I don't have to physically move, I realize. Just reroute within any moment.
How much hiding is required to keep these dimensions so beautiful in contrast? Is it because that they are secret that they retain their charm and allure? Enchantment.
A certain amount of hiding to be sure, but they hide themselves too because they are just so incomprehensible if you don't have the pass. The outsiders could see it, but they'd look right thru and miss what is happening.
We carry the knowledge of some of these enchanted dimensions within our flesh. Especially when we are children. Remembering it now, or remembering that we remember somewhere their existence. When I got called in, it was merely an identification: you are one of us. It's my secret delight to know I carry these kingdoms and their radiant languages, latent. They are there and they are absolutely real. All I have to do is let it radiate, it both creates and attracts until... the angels come down and invite me up for the party. And sometimes we're the ones who descend and invite with a knowing grin. We're the ones saying "Look where you were by yourself and all along we had this feast of friends, but it was only a matter of time before we found you"
Then looking on the outside world from the enchanted parallel I've loved this quote from Cirque du Soleil Quidam:
your world is yours not mine, quidam. your dreams are yours. you may have touched the stars but they weren't moved. and if you reach for me i may not choose to hold your hand. i might smile or i might turn away.
The outsiders could see it, but they'd look right thru and miss what is happening.
The story of my life as a I ponder in amazement how much is by-passed.
And sometimes we're the ones who descend and invite with a knowing grin. We're the ones saying "Look where you were by yourself and all along we had this feast of friends, but it was only a matter of time before we found you"
Now you're talkin. Heavens.
I'm looking forward to the North in Aquarius, Uranus in Pisces, for more of this.
Mpk. That quote is glorious. Perfection. Thank you.
Oh I do love that quote. I think this might be the key to those secret dimensions. If we are willing to take the risk of being with someone or without, seeing it equally, then we are free to enter. Letting go with one hand, grasping with another. Feeling comfortable as a lone seeker and rejoicing in the unexpected. Then company becomes special.
i might smile or i might turn away.
The freedom we all should know. One turns into another if they follow their natural paths.
God, that quote.
sigh, magic again just what i was looking for...thanks m.p.k. and jm.
oh my...
Got to hang out with the magicians. Guaranteed to do the trick. One illusion begets another.
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