A little background here. Let me go waaaaay back with this background. All the way back to one of my favorite movie scenes ever. The first 30 seconds of this clip I could watch everyday, if I had the time.
Emily and I once toyed with making lists like this for ourselves. But we found it was too hard to do because the small soothing things we like are so embedded in our day-to-day life, it is impossible to tease them out. But when I made my list I came up with the following:
new, warm socks
turning north onto River Road off of 42nd street at the start of a run
the first drink of beer after the first bite of a quality hamburger
maps, anywhere, anytime
found objects
I have a need to look at all found objects on walks. About five years ago I was walking Pancho by Mary's house and I found a piece of notebook paper in front of her street. It turns out someone had stolen their baby Jesus (mean). Mary's daughter was seven-ish at that time and made a LOST sign for Jesus, the same way we make signs for our lost pets, complete with a description and picture of the missing Jesus. So it just said, "LOST: JESUS" followed by a blurb about how he was two feet all and made of plastic, and then the rest of the paper was devoted to a giant drawing of what the plastic Jesus looked like, as best as a 7 year-old can draw it with a #2 pencil. I imagine she pinned it to the telephone pole by their house, but did a crappy 7 year-old job of doing so. As a result it ended up in the street and then in my possession.
"LOST: JESUS" in the midst of the commercialized Christmas season. It was brilliant.
Well, Mary (the neighbor) never found Jesus. Instead Mary the neighbor just bought another Biblical Mary, only Mary the neighbor's new Biblical Mary is holding the Jesus, and it's all one molded piece. And for some reason the type of guy who wants to steal a baby Jesus has no interest in stealing a Mary holding Jesus. And this is good for me and Charlotte, Jesus, as tired as he must be in Charlotte's world, remains unstolen and in our life.
Today as we were driving home (Baby Jesus now gets drive-by shoutouts in addition to all the attention we give him on our walks) Charlotte said, "Oh nooooo! Baby Jesus crying. Baby Jesus go night-night. Night night Baby Jesus."
The plastic Baby Jesus on 45th Ave S and 42nd Street: bringing laughter and joy to the Nawrocki household since 2004.
I loved this story when it was just the "LOST: Jesus" sign and now Charlotte has added another layer to make it more awesome.
ReplyDeletemy list of likes:
stretching out my legs when I get in bed and when I wake up
the quiet when you wake up to fresh snow
the deliciousness of a fountain Coke
long shadows in the fall