You take your playtime rather seriously. Whether it’s playing football or doctor or fireman or – most recently – worker bee, you insist on dressing the part and staying in character. While we were trick-or-treating last week, you would periodically declare, “Break time!”, then plop yourself down in the middle of the sidewalk with your candy bucket and hard hat next to you. After seeing our looks of confusion, you would explain that worker bees work hard and have to take breaks. No doubt you learned this in a book and “break time!” is as much a part of being a worker bee as the tools and the hard hat. To you, ‘worker bee’ is an attitude.
It’s one of my favorite things about you. And maybe every kid has it. The ability to look at the most ordinary, commonplace things in this world as if they were magic. So many things about life are still new and mysterious to you. You absorb it so fast sometimes it’s easy to forget that you are actually absorbing it for the first time. New words, new foods, new places, new emotions.
Anymore it seems you’ve moved from the “What is that?” questions to the “Why is that?” questions. And sometimes your questions are hard. The pressure I feel as your Mama is such a privilege. I feel so lucky to live in your little world, trying my best to answer your questions in a way that simultaneously gives you what you need but lets you draw your own conclusions. Your little noggin is so smart and I know there will be days and years you will not want my answers and you may not even ask me your questions, but for now – I’ll do my best.
I just hope you keep asking. If not me, then someone. Too many people in this world get to a point at which nothing is new and mysterious. They convince themselves they’ve seen everything they need to see, they’ve done everything they need to do. Nothing is magic anymore. Don’t be one of those people. There’s always more to see and there’s always more to do. There will be “why is that?” and “where is that?” and “how can that be?”
I hope you get all the answers your little heart is looking for. And I really, really hope you always take playtime this seriously.
6b3Hi there,Wow! What a discussion you’ve poprmted! What I don’t see in the responses are many perspectives from customers. The way to combat price is by offering quality. I cannot stress this enough. Quality quality quality. This is what is missing from today’s mass produced marketplace, and is a niche to be filled by skilled and talented craftspersons. Make products to last (as opposed to designed for the dump), make products from eco-friendly sustainable materials (as opposed to cheap), and share your story. I support businesses that work towards a triple bottom line: profit, environmental responsibility, and social responsibility. Corporate culture cannot address these three priorities as well as small business and individual artists, so make that a feature. I am willing to pay up to 5x more for products made under this premise, and I do (often). The amazing things I buy from craftpersons on etsy are prized pieces in my wardrobe and home, I treat them with respect and I cherish them. I feel good about support a real person, about the materials used, and because its made to last I keep it 10x longer than the mass produced crap Hold on It costs 5x more but last 10x longer? I just made my investment back! These are investment pieces: while they cost more upfront it ends up saving me money in the long term. Make your stuff well and responsibly and be sure to communicate where the value comes from. People like me will buy it.