He was bored.
We’d spent the prior evening putting together chairs from Ikea for my new dining room set and this morning, my little visiting friend was bored again.
I can’t remember ever being bored growing up. Not a single moment. I must have been, but I can’t remember. There were always books to read, trees to climb, forests to explore, creeks to splash in, wildlife to annoy, ditches to dig, forts to build, and imagination to wander. Anything and everything fascinated, from the wax melting down the side of a candle to the never-ending fantasy world of cardboard boxes.
Boxes! I pulled the remains of the chair boxes out from the recycle bin and stacked them on the driveway for my little buddy to use his imagination on. In my mind I saw the fortress of an old refrigerator box, castles, tunnels, paddling canoes down the wild Columbia River rapids, shelter from a storm, great building blocks.
My little friend saw only something to destroy, a great monster of cardboard to conquer and destroy. He’s such a male super hero in his flannel star-studded cape (aka snowflake blankie) and cardboard sword. A warrior. A super hero determined to save the world from the vicious cardboard monster in the driveway universe.
Later I went to a National Novel Writing Month event where we were to spend the night writing at the Portland Airport (PDX). I started off with great gusto, but as the night wore on, my demons crept in, threatening me. No longer was I inspired, writing with confidence and determination, my fingers flowing fast over the keyboard with brilliant and wise thoughts expressed. The whispers told me I was nothing, worthless, unable to write anything coherent let alone meaningful. That I was surrounded by all these creative folks flush with inspired imagination, possibly the next JK Rowling or Diana Gabaldon, all better than me. I was wasting my time and I might as well stop writing now – in fact, I should never type another word, the demons warned. I would never say anything anyone would want to read.
I wished I’d had that little boy’s courage to slash away at the stack of cardboard, saving the world one box at a time.
Ah, but I do!
I mentally put on my snowflake starred cape, grabbed a virtual cardboard sword, and started swinging, shredding the demons into scraps for the recycle bin.
We all need a little super hero in our life to help us fight off the dark forces, with our super hero power of imagination.
