Writing Wrongs

February 24, 2005

The wacky world

This is the name of Andrew�s Imagination Fair project. Why is it wacky? Well, it consists of glass animals and figurines, some of which are from the 1970s, and yeah, a couple are wacky in that handmade 70s kind of way. Andrew has carefully placed one of these figures directly behind the rear end of a porcelain skunk.

This is what makes his project really wacky. It is also a high form of humor for an eight-year-old boy.

I�m hoping he manages to get his project to school without major mishap. It spent the last few days on the kitchen table. We wanted to take a digital picture of it so he�d have a guide for setting it up on his own today. He�s a little stressed about getting it just right. I�d like to get a picture tonight because so much wackiness should not slip from this earth without photographic evidence.

The Imagination Fair is always fun in a high-octane, loud, chaotic sort of way. There�s always at least one horse-obsessed girl and a few with mammoth doll collections. I�ll have to physically restrain Kyra. If someone has a princess display, I�m in trouble.

Last year, a young man was hawking the stories he had written--for free, of course. But he had enlisted his friends, who walked the aisles, singing his praises. When I stopped by his display, he already had a long list of people signed up for copies to be autographed and hand-delivered to their classroom by the author himself. He had the publicity thing nailed, completely, and I had the eerie feeling I was watching a 21st century John Grisham or Stephan King.

But most of all, the Imagination Fair makes me a bit wistful. When do we lose that confidence in our own imaginations?

Charity Tahmaseb wrote at 10:31 a.m.

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