Bigger and Smaller

Bigger Is Better Most Often

I was in the mall with the family last night, and noticed the size of things.

The TVs, both Samsung, were huge! 64 and 65 inches wide, and I think one of them was 3D but I didn’t have my glasses.

The cars, not far off, for children, were tiny replicas of the real things, and so adorable (of course (because) they were small.)! I didn’t point them out to my nearly six yr. old, of course, because he would’ve wanted one in a Bahrain minute. He has a less realistic car of his own, which is battery operated, with one of those “big” batteries.

In fact, since I was a girl, I remember liking small things a lot. Now whenever I reminisce about my childhood, I often think of things in terms of size, if not just the feelings of nostalgia, sadness, anger, betrayal, and/or the many unsavory things about being a child. I can honestly say at one point in my life, which (actually) lasted several years, (I should call it a phase, but that doesn’t seem to do justice to the fact that I was a victim during this period, which seemed lengthy) I “hated” my two younger brothers.

I wanted to be a knight, I made myself a castle with little people, drawn on the inner walls of the fortified building with crayons, and also furnishings which were medieval looking, and made a drawbridge door, which compared to the castle, was big, but which I would never have actually fit in myself. I think I entered the box somehow, which had delivered some appliance or other, by getting into it via another bigger space, like the top or side of the carton.

I wanted a real dollhouse with running water, when I saw one on television, with plumbing, lights and all the modern amenities; I was a teen by then.

I liked to escape into fantasy land, which is why I guess, small things seemed to help connect to the imagination. I guess many kids who had grown up with Mr. Dressup might’ve done equally imaginative things like make horses out of snow, which didn’t have a head, or tail, just a big body growing out of the frozen ground. Who needs toys, or expensive stuff, when imagination will do more wonders?

I saw an ad, for a television, in which the guy who is in a small chair, and could be a real short person, which for men means less than 5 ft 2 inches, women are short if they are less than 4 ft 8 inches, is facing the hugest screen I’ve ever seen, nor imagined, in my life. I think there is a limit to how big you want your home television.

But that’s just me.

The ad could’ve been one of those photo shopped thingies.

I guess advertising also imagines a world where anything is possible.

But my world doesn’t have room for a product that big, nor does my mind, which imagines all kinds of possibilities for what would happen if I actually could afford to own such a thing, and bring it home. Unless my kids are (suddenly) also very good at visualizing themselves actually sitting still in front of a television when they are not squabbling or throwing or kicking a ball, I don’t see it!

P.S. thanks for the teeny tiny trunk, that was hers and now is mine, mom.

(My son is visiting this week and brought greetings and gifts.)