If there’s one thing I love more than anything, it’s a “thing”. Can’t tell you what it is, but it’s probably something, and something I really, really love. What I can tell you is what I love more than that, and it’s another thing. Not just “another thing” but the other thing, which is the joy of a random toy, regardless of where it is. This article is in edification of that random, second thing.
Imagine you go to a famous, historic, flawlessly restored lighthouse, get the uncommon opportunity not just to see it but to climb all the way up to the forbidden summit of the tower and from there you can see what’s debatably the most beautiful beach in the western hemisphere… now imagine that all that stuff is blah, blah, blah, whatever, and you’ve got a new found favorite toy in your hand… yep, that’s where I’m at today.
My newest, favorite toy (which I’ve already lost or forgotten as of the composure of this article) is my plastic Spiderman card, complete with a rigidity and graven image of Spidey himself. Perhaps now you can see how, even with the past and present of my future at stake, I’m still more interested, one could argue “embarrassingly interested” in my silly, dime store toy.
It’s so great that hording it and playing with it alone aren’t enough. Not even is the fact that I carried it the half-mile to our destination, but that, once given the opportunity, I feel the need to show it to the camera upon “cheese” requests, in lieu of an actual smile no less.
I’m smiling a bit, technically, but only because I’m so darn happy about my silly, nonsensical, already lost or forgotten toy.
Even now, looking back at photos to write this article, I’m not even sure I have the first ounce of understanding what was so great about it, except maybe that I was Spiderman for Halloween last year, even though this year I’ve pre-pledged to be “Jack,” my favorite of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers… His name isn’t actually “Jack” but that’s what I’ve been calling him.
It was almost great. This year, as in past years, we were going to all be dressed in a theme, us junior staff members of Perplexing Times, but it was not to be. I demanded to be a Power Ranger, and my brother’s quickly latched on. We’d be a gaggle of Power Rangers. Wouldn’t that be ideal?
Patrick was the first to bow out, but Dominic is quite an emulator of his older brother, so he kept on with my passion… until the parents suggested Buzz Lightyear, and then it was all over.
Patrick still has yet to decide his costume, and ultimately it will be budget constraints that decide all of it, but this discussion only takes me that much further from my original headline.
Point is: I don’t care if there are indeed azure beaches of uncommon cleanliness behind me or that I’m standing in a 200-year-old place that only about 30-people have stood before. I’ve got a cheesy Spiderman card, and that’s all the joy I need… Why is it the parents take me out any more anyhow? I mean, you’d think they’d know me by now.
Above – Pay no mind to the historic landmark place all around me, as well as arguably the best beach in all the Caribbean in the background, this is me and my silly, 25-cent spiderman card in hand, which deserves a lifetime of rememberance, if not outright regret.