How Lego Changed my Life
Hello,
you have no clue who i am. and i don't really have a clue who you are. but i
have been to the pudding store many a time, and i have to ramble a little bit in my own way
about lego. before i begin, may i suggest that you become the pudding and waffle
store? then you can say "lego my eggo". ok, so that was a bad pun, but i found it
funny. anyways...
my name is rosie (or rose, hence ros(i)e), and i am a legoholic.
i was a lego child. me and my sister used to spend many hours building strange
and fantastical creatures and buildings out of lego. sadly, i forgot my lego
heritage and have fallen legoless for the last few years. but never fear, i have found
some hope in my lego, or lack of, situation. my hope comes in the form of my 5 year
old brother. i was looking after him one night, and he brought out his lego.
normally he's happy enough playing by himself, but this time he wanted me to build
something. i must admit to be being reluctant at first, but my enthusiasm grew
and grew. i built and built and built and built some more, and as i built, i could
feel my creativity start to flow again. (previously, it had been blocked up for some
time) i built a huge sprawling... thing. thing is the only word that i can think
of that of to describe it. there were pieces with "hotel" and "post" and "shell"(as
in the gas station, i think) written on them tacked way up on top, there were
random body parts stuck everywhere, blue shirts, yellow heads (why are all lego
people's heads yellow? something to add to your list...), there were pieces with slanted
sides that i think were probably supposed to be for house rooves long long ago,
but were turned into extremely nifty computer consoles for space ships, there
were windows stuck randomly into walls, great long leg-like things sticking
out, there were doorways, holes... this was my thing. this was the result of my
creativity. this was my masterpiece. this thing, this mess of pieces mashed
together. this assembly of colours, mostly red (why is it that red seems to be
the predominant lego colour?), blue, black, yellow (another thing to add your
yellow list if you don't have it already), white pieces so old and faded that
they looked yellow (yet another list item), some whole, new-looking, almost shiny,
some dirty and chewed on by the dog... boy oh boy (girl oh girl, man oh man,
woman oh woman, let us not be sexist now) was it ever ugly. it was hideous.
but it didn't matter. i was proud. to me, it was a beautiful chaotic mess. it
was amazing. it was uplifting. it was some strange sort of therapy almost,
that's how good i felt. nothing that i could ever make by following a little
instruction booklet could make me feel like that. and all the pieces to make
what the pictures show have been lost under the couch, are hidden in corners,
have been eaten by various forms of wildlife... for that matter, where are the
instructions anyway? who knows where it all is, and does it really matter? if i
had really wanted to build a conventional little car or house, i could have made
some tacky thing up myself. but i didn't. i had no vision of what it would turn
into. it just was. it was the most fulfilling thing i'd done for a long time.
and this is how lego has changed my life. in the last two weeks, since The Great
Lego Experience, i have found enjoyment in many random pieces of art.
paint splotches, pencil strokes, notes pounded on the piano, beats without
a rhythm on drums... even random nonsensical words. i give many thanks
to my brother, and to the person who invented lego.
i really have no idea why i just wrote all that, and why i'm sending it to you.
i guess i just thought maybe you had similar feelings about lego, and even
if you don't feel that way, just having the word lego on the pudding store
means that you care in some little way... so thank you for listening (i'm hoping
you were anyway) and good night...
ros(i)e the schmuck, who always sticks her foot in her mouth