My son Badger loves to collect things. He will walk through the house picking up any random item that catches his eye and then places these things in little piles. I am right now staring at a pile that includes, but is not limited to, the following: a comb, a pair of ski goggles, a flashlight, two pairs of plastic nun chucks, a slice of plastic bread, a metal baking dish, and one plastic gold metal. There are about 4 different piles similar to this one around the house right now, and he goes from one to the next playing with the items. I try to clean them up, but I have a hard time because not only does scream holy fucking bloody murder and tell me to stop, but I struggle to find the place where the items came from. Where do I usually keep that blue and white comb? I DON’T KNOW. Where do those metal baking dishes normally live? Oh, wait I know the answer to this one: they go with the Easy Bake Oven. But where IS the damn Easy Bake Oven? I DON’T KNOW. And what is impossibly even more frustrating to me is these piles, they seem to make no sense. But Badger gets them. They make perfect sense to HIM. I came to the conclusion this morning that the requirement for keeping your mind young and imaginative is that you have to be able to make sense of the pile. I frankly, have lost that ability. So I will challenge you to decipher the pile!
Nov 282005
I also don’t know if I can quite decipher the importance for each object but here goes my interpretation…
1. There is a grip of snow outside right now so the goggles must be for the treachorous snow.
2. Nobody can head out in the snow without a couple sets of numchucks to fight off the imaginary ninjas who flock in the dead of winter in suburban salt lake city.
3. the bread are of course to eat in between duels against such snow-ninji
4. I see a compass in there…thats so he doesn’t lose his sense of direction in the deep snow.
5. The comb works alongside the goggles…it will help keep his wet hair from getting in his eyes due to cold wet snow.
6. The thing that looks like a toy platypuss is obviously a diversion. Its a secret weapon that turns into a ninja throwing star.
7. The toy dental mirror helps avoid being caught from behind by evil winter ninji
8. Im empty…i don’t know what the fuck those damned baking dishes have to do with anything…that kid is freakin amazing…