Gray beasts clear gray mood

I was thrilled to learn elephants are now dwelling atop a former landfill in Waynesboro.  Yes, they are made of fiberglass, but they are life-size, and I can visit them throughout April.  I am superstitious.  I expect the city to have good fortune during the month.  Citizens of Waynesboro, now is the time to launch those projects you have been dreaming about!  The elephants are bringing favorable conditions our way. 

The elephants come courtesy of Mark Cline, Waynesboro native and Master of Fantasy, Whimsy, and Imagination.  I have visited “Foamhenge,”  his re-creation in foam of England’s Stonehenge.  It was a windy, chilly day.  The earth had turned to mud.  There were no busloads of tourists like those I encountered in England, only a young couple from California.  If Stonehenge inspired awe and wonder, Foamhenge made me smile.

I have admired Mark Cline’s Humpty Dumpty which now adorns the Pink Cadillac restaurant near Lexington.  The man kept his childhood enthusiasm.  You’ve got to admire that.  Actually, you don’t have to admire that.  The artist has his detractors.  I presume they are serious people who have not been captivated by his work, but I like it.  I like what it does to me. 

There has been a movement afoot in America to encourage home altars, repositories of candles and objects to remind their creators of their spiritual life.  They are places for prayer, reflection, and meditation. 

I think we need a parallel movement to encourage home toy boxes.  If I am with a group of students, and the discussion is lagging, all I have to do is ask what their favorite childhood story is.  (I used to ask about their favorite children’s book, but when I started getting blank stares, I expanded to include movies, and even — God forbid — television.)  I don’t care so much what they come up with; it is their faces that get to me.  Their faces light up.  The mood of the room changes.  I think each of them needs a toy box with those stories inside along with their favorite doll or stuffed animal and some simple toys anyone can enjoy.

I have some tops, the kind you spin.  One I got on sale after Christmas this year.  It has a battery and an on-switch.  Four tiny lights come on and make the most amazing patterns when I spin it.  Spinning it at night with the lights off is the most fun.

I have some wooden tops as well.  It is hard to think about the economy when you are spinning tops.  I definitely want tops in my toy box.

This morning after reading about the visiting elephants I dug out my childhood book of poems.  My mother loved to read James Whitcomb Riley to me.  “Little Orphant Annie’s come to our house to stay ... . An’ the Gobble-uns ‘at gits you Ef you Don’t Watch Out!”  She read “The owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea In a beautiful pea-green boat.” Can you read poems you loved without recapturing joy, even if you had a lousy childhood? 

I have a wind-up bear that has banging cymbals on its head and in its paws and wheels on its feet.  It was given to me by a friend who said this was what her life felt like.  She was going through a difficult time with too many people depending on her.  She still is.  The bear sits on my bookshelf to remind me of her.

I continued to ride the Merry-Go-Round at Myrtle Beach, S.C., long after I left childhood.  I plunked my middle-age self onto a horse, grabbed the brass pole and rode up and down along with children so young their mothers had to stand by them to keep them from falling.  When I spotted a carousel tiger in an antiques store downtown, I snapped it up.  He lives beneath a window in my dining room. 

Hard times call for imagination, play and humor.  I am starting by visiting “Hannibal Crosses the Blue Ridge.”  More than once.  Maybe we should name Mark Cline our Most Valuable Player, just the person we need right now.

Patricia Hunt, of Staunton, is a Mary Baldwin College chaplain.