Sunny Side Up August 23, 2006 �2006, Kathleen Gibson If you go down to the woods today� I didn't have a teddy bear as a child. I made them for my children, though. I always constructed the head first, then placed it on the table beside my sewing machine, where it could 'watch' me complete the rest of its royal fuzzi-ness. And so I learned late to love teddies. It was that history that prompted the ruckus in our backyard the other afternoon. A dozen or so teddy bears brought their owners and a few grown-ups over for a genuine teddy bear's picnic. For four hours joy rained on our backyard. Ants joined in, and a nasty-tempered wasp bit one grandmother, but a good picnic is always worth those little annoyances. The Preacher played his guitar and sang The Unicorn, Marvellous Toy, and 'Puff the Magic Dragon'. Furry faces smiled. Cameras snapped. Children squealed. The teddies took 'flying lessons'; dignified 'judges' pondered each bear's fine points and awarded certificates (to much clapping and cheering); children scoured the grounds collecting 'teddy's treasures' and adults guided small hands as they glued bows and hearts on a teddy craft. Two clowns 'dropped' in. Decided to stay awhile. They had small 'teddy friends' on balloons - one for each child, strangely. My old Fortrel bedspread, with kaleidoscope-colored patches the size of breadboxes, served as a picnic blanket. It looked like something from a storybook, spread with tiny sandwiches rolled up like pinwheels, or cut into the shape of teddies, or slathered thick with PB and J. What a grand day we had, down in our backyard 'woods', where the vintage spring horse sprung as it hasn't in years and the jays called and the children laughed, though the wee-est tyke slept through almost the entire event. Why do children love teddy bears? And not only children�. "I can't sleep without my teddy bear," a young mother told me about her large cinnamon-colored bear. "Even though my husband sleeps beside me, there's something about that bear. He's the perfect cushion between my knees." "I love my Teddy Bear's alot I have had all my bear from 1980 to now thay are very prashes to me I will not give them up for anything at all not even money," wrote an adult with a child's heart on a website for teddy lovers. It's a bitter world out there, for the child in all of us. Life falls short of our expectations. People cheat and lie. Hail ruins our crops, the world resounds with war cries, terror threatens our land, and the children don't visit anymore. A teddy bear can't fix any of that, but he's always there to hug. He never backs away when we blow it, and he holds our whispered secrets like precious jewels. A teddy, simply, loves. Or so children imagine. But the pair of clowns who visited our picnic reminded us of a true thing: A teddy, though lovely, can't compare with the real thing: someone who really listens, who really cares, who has real power - God. Listen, children. Listen. Respond Home |
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