Action Figures and Mashed Potatos
Lessons on acceptance and love will literally come from anywhere. This now includes from things like an action figure landing in your mashed potatoes. Yesterday I found myself at the A1M Christmas party with a whole bunch of friends and people who I now call family. Before the concert started there was a dinner for the community which included some of the best mashed potatoes I think I've ever had. Before I could eat, a Jeff Hardy action figure descended from the sky accompanied by sound effects from a kid who was sitting across from me. Upon impact, the action figure was lodged in to my serving of potatoes. I traced the runaway figure back to a boy named Logan, and as I would soon find out, Logan is a super special kid. Logan apologized for the unfortunate landing place of his action figure. I introduced myself and he let me play with his Jeff Hardy figure as quote, "He's not that good anyway".I proposed an alternative that only a 90s kid would think of. Thumb Wrestling! Logan had yet to experience a thumb wrestling match, so after teaching him the basics we started our own rounds. However, after the third or fourth brutal loss suffered from his hands he announced that he was done playing thumb war, and wanted to go back to playing with his action figures. I literally had no idea what I was doing or talking about which is why I was relieved and super happy when Josh from The Protest started up the game, complete with sound effects. Logan then asked to play "thumb game" again, but this time with a request. He wanted me to sing the Darth Vader theme while we wrestled because, "It needs music!". I am usually a pretty serious character, but there are a few things you don't refuse, and a kid who wants the Darth Vader theme sung during a thumb war is one of them. It was weird at first, I generally do not fair well with playing make believe. I was the kid who spent her time digging holes to china, and trying to make things explode in the microwave because I thought pretending to clean was a terrible idea when you really could clean something. As I found myself sitting there though, with the star wars theme music going through my head, and a nonexistent light sabor in my hand I realized that having a little wonder and the ablity to keep one's eyes open to the possibility of something cooler than you see with your eyes was something worth trying. I said earlier that I thought I was usually a pretty serious person, but what is the line between serious and jaded? Between focused, and blinded? At some point, I stopped allowing the wonder of the place around me and my environment into whatever I had my mind on. Letting go and being, for all intents and purposes, a complete goofball became something I'd never be caught doing. Yet in the times when it is acceptable, and in the case of this party encouraged, it was hard to see the wonder in anything. Not because I didn't want to, just because I wasn't looking. I had been playing with an action figure on the gym floor. Logan however was coaching his wrestler into beating mine in the world heavy weight title match at wrestle-mania and I was completely missing this moment. Something to ponder is what else I may have missed. I wake up every morning with a body that does life sustaining processes on its own. A sun that faithfully comes up and sets without human intervention. A planet so intelligently designed that when faced with its mysteries, humans have to admit that despite knowing everything, we really don't know that much. Wonder and miracles are everywhere. The question is not if they exist. The question is what if we are too serious, so lost to wonder, so jaded that we stopped looking in the first place.
My prayer is that in the way of God's word and works, that I never become jaded. The first step honestly, was playing star wars, fighting in wrestle mania, throwing the winning touch down in Super Bowl 76, and making funny faces with a kid from Indiana that could see it all anyway even, if I didn't.
Right before we had to leave for the night, Logan made mention that he thought me and Josh were superheroes. That he wanted a picture, but was too scared to ask. I took his hand walked right over to Josh and the three newest heroes took a picture. Once we had walked away he announced that soon, the League of Awesomness (Kind of like the justice league, but he leads it and Josh and I wear capes) were going to take over the world. I really couldn't argue with that, but made sure to mention when we do, I call the potato supply.
The first step to avoid being jaded to the wonders of God, and of this world, is noticing the action figure in your potatoes, and having enough wonder to look for where it came from, rather than to pick it out.
