[Oe List ...] Jaime for Friday, June 27

[via OE]

Lego. Let it go.


 
I come to the end ofmy visits to the families of my eldest daughters, the first, lives in theoutskirt of Chicago, and the second, in Concord by the East Bay Area of SanFrancisco.  I have four grandsons (twofrom each family) and Liam in Chicago at 4 is neurologically challenged.  He has difficulty with time, doing thingsimmediately in the “now” and impatient to wait out the long-term, has acontrarian bent, and tends to show repetitive behavior.  The last category classifies him under ASD, theAutism Spectrum Disorder.
 
Liam’s older brotherSullivan who is 6 is a wonder in speech and comprehension, way ahead of his agegroup and grade level (he enters first grade this semester at third gradereading level).  He is also a Legobuilder.  The MacDonald’s allure may worka while but there is no way he can be distracted from a visit to any local Legoworld familiar or known to him.  Hecruises the Internet for their locations. Happily, the public library of Palatine, Illinois where he lives has aLego world in its children’s section. His parents also remind him to tidy the plastic bits and pieces heinadvertently leaves behind on their living room floor.
 
Sullivan has the“World of Lego movie 2014”, the first in a series of three, the second forrelease in 2017, and the third, in 2020. Lego Group, the Denmark Company that manufactures the construction toysholds the flagship product, Lego (from the Danish phrase leggodt, which means "play well"), of colorful interlocking plastic bricks as gears, minifigures, etc.  The movie relates the world of an ordinaryworker who falls into the center abyss of his universe and chosen to play “special”one who wears the “piece de resistance” (a rehash of the old messianic role).
 
Fast forward, themovie’s theme: creativity and innovation, does not come from just following theinstruction manual like many Lego players do, nor is the permanence of the krazy glue an option.  Lego is about construction and deconstruction,like life itself, where beauty and passion is found in the process more than inthe product.  A glued product, good forshow casing, is dead rather than alive.  “Weare not in the business of making a living,” my father used to say.  “We are in the business of living a life.”  I added, the finitude of the same is shroudedwith the awe of mystery!
 
Liam had a DVD of thenew cartoon movie “Frozen”.  I did notget to see it while in Chicago but my two grandsons in the Bay Area of SanFrancisco, Dillon at 8 and Sean at 6, had a copy that they could not wait forme to watch.  
 
Frozen is about two sisters, orphaned princesses of a king and a queen whodie in an accident.  The eldest sister haspowers to freeze anything but she almost kills her sister at play.  The parents decide to keep her skill asecret, fearful that their subjects would find out about it, so they separatethe sisters from playing together again.
 
When the eldest comeof age to assume the kingdom’s throne vacated by their parents, she has to weargloves so as not to reveal her powers. Fast forward to the end of the story over the numerous subplots.  Life is not about hiding secrets to maintaina façade; it is about living the real, the authentic, and the true.  The elder sister finally decides to let go ofher fears and build herself an ice castle up in the mountain.  She also had to unfreeze her lowland kingdomfrom the icy cold she unleashes earlier. The movie at the end burst into a song about “letting go,” a practicalenough advice to everyone who allows fear to dictate the cadence of their livesrather than just be the authentic but wondrously compassionate and powerfulselves they already are.
 
The tradition thatinfluenced my upbringing, particularly the European meta-brain of my schooling,conditioned me to think that the way to save someone is to liberate one fromthe grip of something imaginary and unreal, usually a dragon, an imaginaryanimal.  In the Levant, the mirage is aconstant illusion, an internally experienced object attractive and enticing butnot real.  In the old Persia, theydecided that reality consisted of two real opposing forces – the good and thebad - constantly battling for dominion to extend their influence.  A group of nomads in the Levant decided thatreality is one, the only reality, a message now echoed from muezzins on theminaret of many a mosque five times a day. The might and power of the real to Isaiah even uses earthly sovereignsto discipline its people, the chosen ones, to make clear in their social life,the truth of that reality, lest they forgot.
 
Some forgot and abarefoot carpenter from Nazareth not only reminded them of this chosenness, butalso showed everyone that the chosenness is a personal choice, with one’s nameindelibly marked and stamped on the messianic role to set other folks free,even unto death.  The power and might wasfor the taking of anyone willing to take on the role, later self-consciouslyknown as the ekklesia (the householdof the real), to be innovative, creative and free.
 
Lego.  Leg godt.  Let it go. Let the authentic practice of living ring true in life.


j'aime la vie
pinoypanda2031 at aol.com

yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

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