Yesterday morning, Lisa’s hand was causing her some severe discomfort, but not wanting to disappoint the grans, she sent me as the “responsible adult” (air quotes) to take them to the planned promised breakfast and then on to an adventure. Solo.
Now usually when Lisa and I take the grans out, she acts as a solid and unbending control to my wilder inclinations. A firewall to letting my imagination run away with me. Over the years this has kept me out of a lot of trouble.
Yesterday, I felt like The Cat in the Hat.
Particularly comparable to when the little boy says – in reference to the flying couch – “This is awesome! Can I drive?” (at 1:17)
And the CITH replies “Well, it’s incredibly dangerous. You betcha!”
Now, I did have to take care of some obligatory staged photos for Savanna, the middle gran, who was tasked by her teacher to take photos of her and the classroom mascot over the weekend at different places.
And after a delicious breakfast with excellent service at the Village Inn, during which I regaled the grans – and most of the surrounding tables – with descriptive stories of ghost visitations –
Quick aside, the McCaffrey Clan loves Halloween and all of those things that go bump in the night – and after all, modern magic is just quantum physics –
What is quantum entanglement? A physicist explains Einstein’s ‘spooky action at a distance’
This is reflected by my eldest gran, Lucian’s trip to Salem with his mom (from a powerful Celtic blood line that escaped the trials, hangings, drownings and burnings) this week.
Where Lucian learned some of the family arts.
Now, for the record, the three girl-grans’ parents accompanied Lisa and I to Salem back in 2014, with an accompanying paranormal experience recounted in an earlier blog –
A Witch’s Tits In A Brass Brassiere. – The Wise Novelist
So, their branch of the family is covered, although I’m sure they’ll make their own pilgrimage at some point.
And even the newest gran, DJ, has been welcomed into the spooky fold.
And given that her mom and dad are even more into the esoteric than I am, I’m sure she’ll find her way north to Salem at some point.
But I digress. . .
Yesterday, on the way to the Village Inn, we passed not one but two graveyards, during which the girls all held their breath until the SUV had completely passed them (they also engaged in multiple opportunities to simultaneously raise their feet off the floor of the SUV whenever I pointed out that we were about to cross train tracks – we are a very superstitious lot). Turns out they are really good at holding their breath.
Well after a wonderful breakfast, I reminded the girls about the latest Loveland graveyard we passed and suggested – given that we are approaching a time when the veil between worlds is thinnest – that we take a tour to see what we can find.
The response was boisterous and unanimous.
As we were driving through the cemetery, I spotted and pointed out to the girls a very small – knee high – figure standing beside one of the graves as we were passing it. They insisted that we park the car and go back to see what it was.
Now these are the kind of moments that trigger every decent horror movie. So, of course I agreed.
We had an excellent time trapsing through the cemetery trying to find that figure.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19eYseRKgr/
I suggested that it could be a homunculus.
A creature that has powerful magic when it comes to the creative arts – “Through art they are born, and therefore art is embodied and inborn in them, and they need learn it from no one.” Newman, William R. (1998-09-24), “Alchemy, Domination, and Gender William R. Newman”, in Koertge, Noretta (ed.)
So, what could be better to develop budding creatives than finding a homunculus in a cemetery during Halloween week?
Now, I’m sure you are asking yourselves, my fine, five readers, why would any responsible adult in their right mind take grandchildren on a cemetery tour during Halloween week?
First, let the record reflect that there is nothing in my history that supports that I’ve ever been a “responsible adult” or in my “right mind.”
Second, I consider it to be my grandfatherly duty to be as eccentric and unconventional as possible. As proven in my novels and by my own recitations concerning my grandparents, that is how the older generation becomes seared into a child’s memory.
Finally, as clearly demonstrated by the exchanges amongst the grans in the embedded video of the event, https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19eYseRKgr/, exposing a young and fertile mind to an unconventional event is a great way to develop a child’s imagination.
To Einstein, nothing was more important to raising an intelligent child than by developing their imagination.
Why Fairy Tales Help Build Creative Imagination In Children
So, I do my very best, whether it’s here on Casa Claire, or whenever the opportunity arises out there in the real world, to stoke my grans’ imaginations whenever the opportunity arises.
Now, sometimes that intellectual stimulation takes the form of a more natural but just as magical observation. For example, on the way home from our outing, we spotted a herd of elk grazing in a field. Of course, we pulled over and snapped a few photos of the magnificent Bull Elk watching protectively over his herd of 17 cows.
And while I was standing there snapping photos the Bull slowly turned and looked right at me. He instantly realized that I posed no threat to his family.
And in that moment, I realized that that the most important thing to this magnificent creature was the safety and health of his herd. Respect.
So, I whispered a quiet incantation for their continued collective protection and then made sure that my very excited grans who had witnessed the moment got safely home to their mom and dad.
On the way back to Casa Claire, I stopped back in the same spot to see if the herd was still there. It was, so I shot some video. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/14yX7vKhXj4/.
And that was a perfect ending to a magical day.
Well, here we are, my fine, five readers, with another biblically mandated day of rest.
Embrace it to the max and use the free restful time doing something that stimulates your imagination. May I suggest starting (or rereading) The Claire Saga, a modern-day fairy tale that I’m sure Einstein would appreciate.
And, no matter what else we get up to, let us all make today a great one.
