This thing is AWESOME. You put little bits of old, worn-down crayons in and it melts those worthless nubbins down, pours them into a mold and makes a whole new crayon! I saw the ad on TV and I said to my roommate, "Wow! That's so cool!" And it was! It was so incredibly cool. And for the first time in as long as I can remember I was over-the-moon excited about a toy.
You might be thinking, "But Maggie, when it comes down to it, your iPod and your lap-top and your cell phone... These things are all essentially toys." Yes... essentially. But they're NOT toys, like toy-toys, like toys you buy in a toy store toys. They're valuable and fragile and, at this point, necessary. True toys are relatively inexpensive, durable and totally pointless, other than to bring joy to children. All these gadgets adults use are fun, sure, but they serve a purpose. They make life easier somehow. True toys don't make life easier- they make life more fun!
Now you might be thinking, "But Maggie, video games and game systems are expensive, fragile and (for pathetic males in this country) necessary. And they make life fun." NO! Video games are not toys! Stop it! Just because you play video games does not mean you are a child at heart. It means you have no imagination and have to have some nerd make up a world for you to exist in via a controller. Sad. (And while we're on the subject, video games are destroying the modern relationship. Never again will I sit silently next to my guy while he and his friends play Madden. Never. If your idea of the perfect woman is one who likes to watch you play video games... you will die alone. Or at least you'll never be with me.)
Anyway... My point is, true toys are ones that have no significance in this world other than the significance you bestow upon them. I have had many significant toys in my life, dolls and stuffed animals and building blocks and tea sets, that played a huge part in my childhood. They taught me how to imagine, to believe, to create. They taught me how to be anything I wanted to be.
I want a Crayola Crayon Maker for Christmas. I want to make crayons. And then I want to draw. No, not draw... color. Kids color. And I want to color. I want to color a sun and clouds and grass and a house and flowers. I want to color my family and my dog and my friends and a fairy princess and a pony and a rainbow and a ballerina and a butterfly and for a moment forget that I'm on my own now, and I'm scared, and all I have to protect me are these "toys," these devices grown-ups invented to make life "easier." I want to color every moment from now until eternity so I never have to face the fact that I can't go back to the way it was.
All I want for Christmas is a real, fill-me-up-with-glee toy. And strangely, that's how I know that I'm growing up.
UPDATE!!!: I got my Crayola Crayon Maker for Christmas from my aunt Lucy. I am overjoyed.
