Remembering Tiny Things (Excerpt)
Years ago, too many to count, there was a little shop in the Village that sold tiny ceramic figures. There were all sorts of animals - chickens, horses, cats, and dogs - and fantasy stuff too - fairies, gnomes, unicorns, and such. I can remember looking at them with wonder and awe at all their tiny and perfect details. I was, and still am, quite literally…charmed.
When I was even younger, my daddy built my sister and me a tiny kitchen. It is about five feet across and four feet tall. There are cabinets above a counter and in between there is a little mirror with a red curtain and white rick-rack to look like a window. There are two drawers, one on each side of the 9x13 cake pan that serves as the kitchen sink. And down below are three cupboard doors that open up to the large storage space. I still have this kitchen. I also have the chair and little trunk he also made me that Christmas. Later, he built all us girls a tiny house in the back yard where we played endlessly with the kitchen and our dolls. They were “just our size!” I was, and still am, quite literally…enchanted.
What IS it that creates the magic in the miniature? It is that age old law that says, “As above, so below.” This law explains why we are so entranced by the allure of the tiny. If we have a tiny thing that looks just like the real deal, then we have a “seed” of the real deal. We have a scintilla of the wonder without any of the responsibility. We can play, and when we get bored with it, we can put it down and go do something else. This is the best of all worlds.
When you have baby animals, you get a chance to hold them and smell them and play with them, and then you can give them back to their mamas to feed them and clean them and care for them. If the mama is lost, you must take on her role, or the babies will die. But if you have a toy, you can put it down and forget about it till you are ready to play with it again.
The charm of the thing is enhanced by details, but not too many. This is a key point to remember. It doesn’t matter how small it is. What matters is how much it is like the full sized thing it mirrors. And it doesn’t have to be a smaller reproduction in every way. The most important thing to include is the ability to use the imagination!
When my elder daughter was about two, she fell in love with her cousin’s “car.” It was beat up and missing all the accoutrements, but it rolled. She loved that car as much as – and maybe more than – she loved her first real car. Fisher Price Toys “get” it about the magic of the miniature. They give is Little People and all their places to be, the farm, the school bus, and all the places our imagination could create. The magic of their stuff isn’t in the detail, it is in staying out of the way of the imagination and letting the kids create. This is the secret to the magic of the card table fort. Kids are allowed to imagine. This is a powerful force that lets them create their future.
As soon as the details get too defining, the magic is muddied. You cannot imagine the astronaut to be the doctor. You could if he didn’t have the helmet and space insignia on his chest. Or you could if you were imagining a doctor on Mars. The limits constrain the magic.
When you are imagining, you must not get caught up in the details to the point of no longer being able to play because they just aren’t right for your vision.
