Post-Thanksgiving post
My grandmother brought four squeeze toys to our family Thanksgiving in New Hampshire. The toy was filled with air and shaped like a ball. It was not long before our family was seated in a circle around the living room, playing a life or death game of keeping the squeeze toy in the air for as long as possible. The rules were as follows:
1) Remove vases, candles, and all glass objects to another room.
2) If the ball bounces once, it can still be in play.
3) If it bounces and rolls along a table or couch or chair, it can still be in play.
I believe our record was 54 passes around the living room before it was dropped. A typical round consisted of under and overhand passes with the ball sometimes reaching such speed that it contorted into a oblong shape as it spun through the air. I mastered the art of saving the toy on rebound whenever it hit the window blinds, Steve patrolled the couch with massive lunges, and my brother made spectacular dives across the floor. Hysterical laughter and shouts of “Still in play! Still in play!” resounded through the house.
In the end, just two bleeding, bruised fingers and one dislocated shoulder amongst the players. Just the usual Thanksgiving in my family. How was yours?
Here is a quote to ponder:
“The personality is built on points of self-estrangement. The paradox is that what we take to be so real, our selves, is constructed out of a reaction against just what we do not wish to acknowledge.” p 19
thoughts without a thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective, by Mark Epstein, M.D. BasicBooks: 1995.
Nov 27th 2007Family
