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| Quinn's drawing turned into a plushie mermaid |
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| Maja and me created her own toys |
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| Marina's mermaid surrounded by her own custom stuffed sea creatures |
“Giants,
wizards and dwarfs was the game to play.
Being left
in charge of about eighty children seven to ten years old, while their parents
were off doing parenty things, I mustered my troops in the church social
hall and explained the game. It’s a large-scale version of Rock, Paper,
and Scissors, and involves some intellectual decision making. But the
real purpose of the game is to make a lot of noise and run around chasing
people until nobody knows which side you are on or who won.
Organizing a
roomful of wired-up gradeschoolers into two teams, explaining the rudiments of
the game, achieving consensus on group identity–all this is no mean
accomplishment, but we did it with a right good will and were ready to go.
The
excitement of the chase had reached a critical mass. I yelled out:
“You have to decide now which you are–a GIANT, a WIZARD, or a DWARF!”
While the
groups huddled in frenzied, whispered consultation, a tug came at my pants
leg. A small child stands there looking up, and asks in a small,
concerned voice, “Where do the Mermaids stand?”
Where do the
Mermaids stand?
A long
pause. A very long pause. “Where do the Mermaids stand?” says I.
“Yes.
You see, I am a Mermaid.”
“There are
no such thing as Mermaids.”
“Oh, yes, I
am one!”
She did not
relate to being a Giant, a Wizard, or a Dwarf. She knew her
category. Mermaid. And was not about to leave the game and go over
and stand against the wall where a loser would stand. She intended to
participate, wherever Mermaids fit into the scheme of things. Without
giving up dignity or identity. She took it for granted that there was a
place for Mermaids and that I would know just where.
Well, where
DO the Mermaids stand? All the “Mermaids”–all those who are different,
who do not fit the norm and who do not accept the available boxes and
pigeonholes?
Answer that
question and you can build a school, a nation, or a world on it.
What was my
answer at the moment? Every once in a while I say the right thing.
“The Mermaid stands right here by the King of the Sea!” says I. (Yes,
right here by the King’s Fool, I thought to myself.)
So we stood
there hand in hand, reviewing the troops of Wizards and Giants and Dwarfs as
they roiled by in wild disarray.
It is not
true, by the way, that Mermaids do not exist. I know at least one
personally. I have held her hand.”
© 1986, 1988
by Robert L. Fulghum
Worth reading all the other stories as well! :-)
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