Buildings

They're making Tinker toys out of wood again much to my relief. For a while there they were making them out of plastic. Some things shouldn't change. Like toys. It bugs me that Tonka trucks are made of plastic. Erector sets? Plastic. That's a crime. Lincoln logs thankfully are still made of wood. They are aren't they? I remember my first Erector set, all metal and about the size of a deck of cards. They crammed a lot in that little box. I never built anything recognizable 'cause I'm mentally retarded but it kept me busy until I lost most of the pieces, which was probably an hour. I was 5.

I was talking to a friend and pondering how we turn out. How when we're teens or college students and we think about how we'll be when we're all grown up and we imagine only good stuff. But few of us make it to grown-up-hood on the path we imagined nor does it look like we imagined. Well, mine didn't. Really, I don't think I had a path in mind nor what I'd look like. Somehow I imagined more hair and less gut though. I have the ability to be able to not think past next week which is probably how I got here. Think it's time to think in bigger chunks. Maybe a month at a time.

They built 4 stories of an 8 story building here in town and then ran out of money. Oops. During the 80's and 90's I'd go to Orlando a few times a year and there was this condo that had the same problem I guess. It was 10 or 15 stories and just a concrete shell that seemed to get a little dingier each time I saw it and eventually started to have vines creeping up the sides. It was a shame really. I love tall buildings and to see such a strong structure disappear behind neglect and poor planning was a crime. Look at me, I'm starting to cry. Somebody did come up with some money I think because I came back one day and it was finished and looked pretty sharp.

So I built things with my erector set and tinker toys. Structures, buildings. But just the shell of a building because there wasn't anything to put on it like walls, windows doors. Think that came later with the Legos that I never got. Thanks mom. But they were pretty awesome looking to me.

My Dad builds structures too. Of flesh and bone and personality. Of spirit. Strong structures. I got to see a lot of them in college and I was so impressed with His handy work. I still am. It's around this time I think we start adorning our building, putting on an education, a career, a spouse, children, homes...or at least how we start out. For some of us we now live in a gleaming glass tower of person-hood with fountains and nice landscape. Others of us it's a good solid office building, nothing fancy but it works. And some of us, well, our structure looks like the building in Orlando. Covered in dirt and mold and vines so that now people hardly recognize what's underneath. Sometimes it's our fault. Sometimes life just gets dumped on us. But no matter. It's what's below the glass or vines. It's the foundation, the building. That My Dad built. Such a good work. He is so good.

I wrote this for me, kinda typing therapy. Not real happy with the way my building looks after 47 years and I wish it were different in places. I know life is a work in progress all the way through and I keep working but some days I just cry. It's pretty hard and sometimes lonely. But I am somebody special, if to nobody else, my Dad. He is so good to me and He built a great structure on which I hope to hang something special enough to garner Him much applause and praise.It's never too late, for me or you.