Well, Olig Snush and Blueberry died. Apparently they didn't like the words that Ari Pierson Kanter was saying (Ari Pierson Kanter the engine). They are not coming back to life - they're just gone. Dutch and Dump, who are dump trucks, are sad about the demise of their friends. It's weird to be a parent and be attached to some imaginary person/thing your child has dreamed up. Evan and I were pretty fond of the concept of Olig Snush, particularly his name.
Luckily, Ari's main imaginary friend, Al, lives on. Al's parents come and go, but Al endures and has for over a year now. Al is in New York right now - staying in a hotel for a while, but maybe tomorrow he's going to come back. Al is going to give Ari four and half loogiers for Christmas because Ari lost his road bike. "I'm so sad that I lost my road bike" he says. "I want to get a new purple bike." Ari is going to give Al a new train set for Christmas. It will include Molly, Gordon, Henry and James.
Dutch and Dump had everyone over (including "Junior") for dinner this afternoon. They served french fries and "chicken meat." Dump had been in Africa and couldn't make it to Seattle but everyone missed him and he came back. Apparently Junior always makes a huge mess.
There has always been more to say about Al and about Anna, who became Ari's female alter-ego for a while at age 4 (or perhaps she arrived while Ari was still 3), but I had never gotten around to writing it, which is why this post sat languishing in the Drafts folder for years and years. I love reading something I wrote back in 2009 about a time in our lives that I never think about now.
Anna showed up on a trip to Vancouver, in a hotel room where we stayed near Simon Fraser University when Evan was giving a talk there. We aren't sure what exactly led to her arrival, but she was there "to clean the room" and unlike Al, she was not a friend. She was Ari. Looking back, Ari must have been 3, because there was still an issue with his sleeping habits in new places, and I have a memory of a mattress on the floor in a corner of the room, which seems to be something we did back then - put the kid on the floor because maybe we worried he would fall out of a bed?
When Anna would appear, Ari was always very clear that "I'm Anna" and Anna would hang around for a while, do various kinds of imaginary play (often cleaning but sometimes just talking), and then be replaced, without explanation or announcement, by Ari. We used to chuckle about it. Ari didn't appear to be trying on a "girl" persona or behavior - he was just a different person who happened to be female from time to time.
Al came along to New Zealand with us, but he started spending less time with us after we got there. I'm not sure exactly when Al departed. He had been spending some time in China, and he slowly faded out of the picture after Ari started school. When we would ask, we were told that Al was traveling a lot.
It is now July of 2017 and I discovered my original draft of this post after not having looked at this blog for several years. It had ended after the information that Junior always makes a mess. Evan called me from work just as I had started to write about Anna, and so I read him everything I'd written up to that point. I was laughing so hard as I read it that tears were streaming down my face. As funny as it was, of course they were not just tears of laughter. Listening to Evan's reactions on the phone, and feeling my own, it was hard not to experience some serious nostalgia and a little heartbreak about the kid that doesn't exist in our current time/space plane -- preschool Ari. We wonder if he would remember Al a little, as we both know he wouldn't have any memories of the rest of it. I can't ask him until tomorrow because he's at summer camp, something he's been doing for the last 5 years now. Just this morning I had this thought while scanning the posted camp photos -- that he's not a little kid anymore. Not by a longshot.
So it is probably perfect timing that Olig Snush and Dump and Dutch and Al and Anna have come to pay me a visit today. They are proof that what we imagine is real in a way, and what is real can also seem imagined. Memories recall real times that are no longer. They live on in our imaginations and are a beautiful reminder that one day is never really like another.
There has always been more to say about Al and about Anna, who became Ari's female alter-ego for a while at age 4 (or perhaps she arrived while Ari was still 3), but I had never gotten around to writing it, which is why this post sat languishing in the Drafts folder for years and years. I love reading something I wrote back in 2009 about a time in our lives that I never think about now.
Anna showed up on a trip to Vancouver, in a hotel room where we stayed near Simon Fraser University when Evan was giving a talk there. We aren't sure what exactly led to her arrival, but she was there "to clean the room" and unlike Al, she was not a friend. She was Ari. Looking back, Ari must have been 3, because there was still an issue with his sleeping habits in new places, and I have a memory of a mattress on the floor in a corner of the room, which seems to be something we did back then - put the kid on the floor because maybe we worried he would fall out of a bed?
When Anna would appear, Ari was always very clear that "I'm Anna" and Anna would hang around for a while, do various kinds of imaginary play (often cleaning but sometimes just talking), and then be replaced, without explanation or announcement, by Ari. We used to chuckle about it. Ari didn't appear to be trying on a "girl" persona or behavior - he was just a different person who happened to be female from time to time.
Al came along to New Zealand with us, but he started spending less time with us after we got there. I'm not sure exactly when Al departed. He had been spending some time in China, and he slowly faded out of the picture after Ari started school. When we would ask, we were told that Al was traveling a lot.
It is now July of 2017 and I discovered my original draft of this post after not having looked at this blog for several years. It had ended after the information that Junior always makes a mess. Evan called me from work just as I had started to write about Anna, and so I read him everything I'd written up to that point. I was laughing so hard as I read it that tears were streaming down my face. As funny as it was, of course they were not just tears of laughter. Listening to Evan's reactions on the phone, and feeling my own, it was hard not to experience some serious nostalgia and a little heartbreak about the kid that doesn't exist in our current time/space plane -- preschool Ari. We wonder if he would remember Al a little, as we both know he wouldn't have any memories of the rest of it. I can't ask him until tomorrow because he's at summer camp, something he's been doing for the last 5 years now. Just this morning I had this thought while scanning the posted camp photos -- that he's not a little kid anymore. Not by a longshot.
So it is probably perfect timing that Olig Snush and Dump and Dutch and Al and Anna have come to pay me a visit today. They are proof that what we imagine is real in a way, and what is real can also seem imagined. Memories recall real times that are no longer. They live on in our imaginations and are a beautiful reminder that one day is never really like another.
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