Towers of Imagination

In my young hands, the white cloth bag felt heavy. Inside were the materials to fuel my imagination, plastic ridged sticks and these miniature spheres, which looked a little like tee balls. With the bag in hand, I found a patch of dark green carpet in the living room, plopped down and poured them out.

In my mind images of towers and cityscapes turned into automated cars and planets made made from the plastic pieces. With the swirl of pieces around my indian crossed legs, I could lean down to the carpet and see that anything was possible.

I lifted one of the spheres in my hand and looked at the arrangement of hole. A round hole was on the top and the bottom. Surrounding each of these holes, was a set of oblong holes stretching to the equator. Finally, a band of holes formed a belt. This was one of of the building blocks for whatever it was, I was to build. The better I could know it, the better I could build.

So, I studied it.

When I was done becoming one with the sphere, I started attaching sticks and more spheres to it. I started by making a square, but it had enough play to it, that I could hear the cracking of the plastic went it was under stress. I tried adding a cross beam to the square, but the dimensions were off. I took it apart and built a triangle.

No give, very solid feeling. This would be the base.

In the living room, I was completely observed. I have no idea who peaked in on me, where my Mom or Brother, or if anything was on TV. The triangle became a pyramid, which became, two, three, four connected pyramids. The structure showed no sigh of bending. It grew, drawn from my imagination, like a rabbit from a hat before me.

Soon I was pulling a chair in, because it was too tall for me to add the final pieces. The creation out grew me and I could not have been more happy.