Prescription: laughter pills.
August 20, 2008
Do you believe in magic?
August 16, 2008
When I was in seventh grade, we had to keep a padlock on our PE locker. We put all our clothes, any jewelry or books in the locker while at class–all safely under the combination lock. That first year, there were several times that I was late to my next class because that lock was so tricky. Don’t worry, by 9th grade, I was pretty much a pro.
I forgot about how trickly combo locks can be until my 9 year old cousin was trying to get the lock off our pool gate yesterday. He tried and got frustrated and tried again and told me it was the wrong numbers and tried again and then asked me to do it. As I deftly opened the lock, his eyes got big and he said, “How’d you do that?!”
“Magic.”
His eyes narrowed, and he informed me, “There’s no such thing as magic. How did you open that lock?”
There is something fundamentally wrong here. If a 9 year old doesn’t believe in magic, who does? Why are families willing to put a dollar under a pillowcase in exchange for a tooth, but deny a fairy visited their house in the night?
I reject any idea that a child will have some strong sense of injustice when he realizes his parents LIED to him all those years that Santa left presents under the tree. If when you are nine, you cannot believe in fairy godmothers or dwarves on the march to reclaim old family money or a cousin with magic lock opening fingers—what will you be when you are grown?
If you haven’t practiced believing the unbelievable, if you haven’t stretched and exercised your imagination, will you be able to believe in the stories and miracles of the saints? Will you be able to fathom that God in flesh died for your stinking, sin-rotting soul?
Are you satisfied?
August 13, 2008
My father had worked with Catholics and told me they were no different from us. If anything they were less solemn. They liked to eat and drink and game and sing. He said this almost as if he envied them.
Girl with a Pearl Earing by Johannes Vermeer
