BANG-bot

This fairly complicated, or maybe gaudy creature is my BANG-bot. He is the keeper of promises.

He is camouflaged in stripes and polka dots, and hides behind a small styrofoam cluster of clouds usually, so you don't know he's there. You see, the reasons promises are so hard to keep is because he has to catch them, as soon as they come out, and lock them in the safe he keeps next to his heart on his chest.  Promises are small and fast little buggers, and typically like to run free and wild. They also have sharp teeth, and very very small eyes.

But, if caught, he pops them in the safe and they can live forever next to his heart, feeding off his love and the scraps of hot glue left sloppily around the outside of connection points on his body. MMmmmm - hot glue.

If he finds promises that are insincere, and only put forth to suit someone's immediate needs,  or promises that have the potential lasting power of a 3 year old subjected to a 2 hour lecture on the Global Economy, he just slices them up with those pretty but lethal blades on the outside of his safe and they're gone, although not usually before a modicum of damage is done to someone. 

That's the sound it makes when they pop.

Verita-Bot

Meet Verita-Bot, aka the truth faerie. Aaah... the truth...what EXACTLY is it? I've found myself exploring that question more than I'd like recently. We've had some "incidents" of late .... some fat whoppers, some "I don't remembers" and some serious long winded fictional accounting...so we called in our expert friend here. She may look sweet, but she's been known to...well, we won't go there.

She is made from everything I could find in the recycling this morning. Chocolate milk bottles, spice lids, old straws, Baskin Robbins wrapping and chip wrappers. She has two sets of wings for fast flying...she can catch a lie right out of the gate, her great big observant eyes help allot.

There - now you can see them. She is good. She is loving...and like magic, she'll turn your miscreant tendencies into great learning experiences for the whole family before you even know what's going on!! 

Ai-bot

 

This is my Ai-bot. Ai means "love" in Japanese. She was going to be the Kabuki-bot - but the magic meatball said it was not to be.  

 

Today I just woke up sad. It felt pretty good to get out my work tins and start working before the sun came up. I wanted to make boats because it's raining so hard, but this Ai-bot came out instead.

I sifted through the recycling - and I really recommend doing this with your kids. Its magical and like treasure hunting and then the get to transform the rubbish into art! Alchemy. 

This sad creature is what came out. She is crying for Japan and war and for all the people left behind by people who they loved and who are dying.

She dresses a bit like me...

and tears pour down her milk carton body, from her screw top eyes, down her greek yogurt face, through her chocolate wrapper arms...just like me, ok not exactly - although I did help to eat and drink all that stuff. 

She, and I, are not thinking about numbers, or money or policy, or necessary sacrifice, or collateral damage or human shields - in general. 

We are thinking of relationships, of families, of lovers, of friends. We are thinking about the permanence of death, and individuals, of faces and quirks and mannerisms... of all the things that makes each person unique. We are thinking about that. Of great great love and loss.

When I was pregnant with my daughter I had this epiphany walking down State St. with my belly sticking way out. I suddenly was gripped with the fear that I would fall and hurt her in my belly. That I could accidentally kill her by eating the wrong food or doing something, anything. And then it came...as soon as a life is conceived the only sure thing is that it will die. But the world is full of people! We were all born and many of us have made the decision to give birth, and by doing so - introducing a being to this earth with a finite amount of time. Finite. There is always death.

That moment changed me forever. That and a few other things. Life is  too short to not embrace it, not to let yourself love, really love, or not to do things that are different but that you believe in.  I want my daughter to have the richest life possible. I want her to know that she is loved more than anything. That she will always be taken care of by not only family but by a community of people who love her too. Community is so important. Friends are so important. i think about all this when I think about war, about disasters and people not helping each-other, or individuals being referred to as numbers. I will refocus on the individual, on their love. I will focus...while my robot cries.

My love song for today...

The Beetles - two of us


I really like Amy Mann's version but couldn't figure out how to get the sound without a bunch of  "I am Sam" imagery. 

"Focus on the good things little robot, on the love" - she says with tears in her eyes. "Each individual has the potential to change the world!"