Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Only a puppet?


Today I took Maddy, my 2 year old niece, to see a Christmas play called The Snow Baby. It was the story of a woman who had to spend Christmas alone. She starts off stoically (Bridget Jones-like) but loneliness creeps upon her. She wishes on a star for company and the snow baby comes to visit her.
There were great light effects, chiming music and snow flakes fell magically from above the stage. The woman danced with the snow baby in her arms. She said, 'I'm SO happy I have someone to spend Christmas with.' In response, the boy beside me shouted out, 'It's only a puppet, and it's got a man working it.'
Of course the snow baby had to go back from whence it came. And the woman hugged it, thanked it for coming and let it fly off into the starry sky. It was surprisingly moving - a moment of metaphor for lots of things in life: for enjoying what you have while you have it; for the suspension of disbelief; for letting go graciously.
Am I getting carried away? Note to self: It's only a puppet. Afterwards all the kids ran on the stage to play in the snow. When we came out, Maddy and I were walking along the street with artificial snow flakes in our hair. Great.
-C

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