IK Power!

I worked with this one woman for 10 years. In all the time I've known her she was easy to get along with, articulate and professional. A good corporate supervisor on all counts. Then one day I brought in a teddy bear I built at Build-A-Bear. She picked up my bear and looked at him, turned him around, looked at his clothes, petted his fur. This went on for minutes. MINUTES.

Then suddenly she put him down in front of me and blurted out "why'dja bring 'im t'work? He's bored."

My supervisor shrank! Suddenly she was five years old again and feeling sorry for a stuffed animal because "he's bored."

It was fun.

I see Inner Kids (IK's) coming out all over the place these days. It's in hints and glimpses here and there, usually when you least expect it. A look will slip out, perhaps, or a posture will be taken. Maybe a phrase will be uttered that sounds like total Kidspeak.

I love looking for those glimpses. I took my sister to Build-A-Bear a few weeks back. My sister is 40 (shhh! Don't tell her), a mother of two and holds a job with serious responsibilities. I haven't seen her act like a kid in ages. Suddenly BOOM! Out of the blue, she comes running (running!) up to me and says in fluent Kidspeak "um, can my bear be a gurl bear cuz I wanner t'have a pink dress."

It was fun, but honestly I would expect it from my sister. I never expected it from my colleague at work.

I think the IK stuff is catching on though. There is something appealing about, as Counselor Deanna Troi of Star Trek: The Next Generation puts it, "[having] a second childhood; without the pain of growing up again." We might all be grown ups on the outside, but somewhere inside is a little kid itching to get out.

Do you suppose that's why Anderson Cooper can occasionally be caught swinging his legs back and forth while doing his show? There's something infinitely "cute" about watching a high powered, star reporter kicking at the rungs of his chair while telling us about government officials accepting bribes.

Expressing your inner kid must be necessary to achieve your God- or Goddesshead.

I command thee: go forth and play!

I Want My Turn!

Ella Fitzgerald
Lillias White

I will never know what it's like to hold a crowd captivated by voice alone.

Nelson Mandela (Madiba)
Ernesto Guevara (Che)

I will never know what it's like to wrest an entire country free.

Wuthering Heights
Frankenstein

I will never know what it's like to write something that helps shape a culture.

Brittany Spears
Jennifer Lopez

I will never know what it's like to have a body men lust over.

Anderson Cooper
I will never know what it's like to be declared "the conscience of the nation."

Next time, it's my turn!

I've been trying to think of a way to get around the fact that I want to write about Anderson Cooper. I don't want this blog to be some Anderson Cooper groupie thing, but he said something a few weeks back that struck me.

Darfur reminded me.

I don't know where he was. Somalia, Rwanda, somewhere out there. It couldn't have been an easy assignment. How can anyone see where entire villages of women who have been raped, mutilated and otherwise tortured? How many of us could watch children die because there is no food or even milk? These are the stuff of nightmares.

Now lets switch gears for a minute. Completely.

How many pictures do you have around you? I mean pictures. Pictures of your children or grandchildren? Those kinds of pictures.

In my bedroom (where I'm writing this) I see -

My great grandmother whose mother was pregnant with her while riding with Buffalo Bill's show in France. It's said she never did to slow down.

There's a picture of a young cousin of mine. She is now in her 20s. At the time the picture was taken she was four.

There is my father, both in a tiny little pocket sized photo and a full 8x10 that was taken when he was modeling.

There are others. I have pictures at my desk at work and in my wallet. I've even been known to keep a framed picture in my car. They're keepsakes, reminders of heart felt affection.

Now lets go back to Anderson Cooper in Somalia, Rwanda or even Darfur (you pick). It's hard enough for anyone to lose a child. Somehow we manage to live through it, even if we won't ever get over it. Some of us can even say "see that gorgeous person on the piano over there?" and we know who the smiling face in the picture belongs to.

The mothers of Somalia, Rwanda and Darfur don't have pictures.

And the only images that exist of a very precious few children are the ones Anderson Cooper took.

Is that the kind of picture you'd want on your piano?



















Thanks Anderson