It's a Magical World

This is Sam.

I got him as a Christmas present in I believe 2000- just before we moved from a small town in Colorado to where we live now, in Phoenix, Arizona. We were spending Christmas at my Grandmother's house in Littleton, having basically moved out of our old house and spending a week or two there before moving out once the new year came around. Sam was a present from my Grandmother, a Beanie Baby basset hound given in tandem with a beanie baby cat for my sister. The cat was christened "Snowball" (I believe the default name on the tag), while I named mine after the stuffed dog in Arthur (a running theme throughout this blog is probably going to be how startlingly uncreative my names are).

I ended the last post with an invocation of sorts- let's go exploring. The line, along with the title of this post, is taken from the final strip of the newspaper comic Calvin & Hobbes. The influence of this comic on me as a child cannot be understated- I fell in love at a very early age with the characters, storylines, artwork, jokes, everything. As a kid I had several collections- the original book, The Authoritative Calvin & Hobbes, and There's Treasure Everywhere (As a kid I preferred the older strips. As an adult I prefer the later ones). Along with Toy Story, which we'll get to in due time, it was a major influence on how I treated and interacted with my toys.

Sam was, essentially, my Hobbes. Every kid has one- that one toy that they interact with the most and in many ways see as a sort of companion. Sam wasn't my first toy and doesn't have the strongest emotional resonances for me, but he was the constant in all my stories- the one I probably played with the most. Interesting, then, that my characterization of him was never that charitable. He was always a bit of a lummox- a glutton for food and an undying love for his girlfriend, the aforementioned Snowball, which would inevitably manifest itself in a comically misplaced jealousy. Even in terms of the world of my toys he was never the king or the president- not even a council member. Just a co-star on a mildly successful sketch show starring Snowball- the Harvey Korman to Snowball's Carol Burnett.

No, Sam never amounted to much in Toy World. But then he never seemed to mind. He was always the first to go on vacations, and each and every place was the new hotspot of the world- be it Disneyland, San Francisco, or Littleton, Colorado. It was a running joke between my sister and I that every time we stopped to get candy or snacks on the car ride, Sam would be overjoyed at the "gourmet" meal of mini M&Ms or Nerds- or even a cheeseburger from McDonald's. Everything was the best to him- every sight, sound, and experience was savored and relished, and everything that was ordinary was to him deemed extraordinary.

One of the things that always separated Calvin from Hobbes was his insatiable desire to be somewhere better. Calvin constantly daydreamed of far out galaxies and dinosaurs in F14s and was constantly unsatisfied with the things in his life. Hobbes, by contrast, could find satisfaction in just about anything, be it a warm summer's day, a beam of sunlight streaming through the window, or a bowl of beets. Maybe it's time to take a page out of Hobbes' book. Maybe it's time to learn to be happy with the life you lead instead of constantly striving for something better. That doesn't mean to stop trying and to stop dreaming- not at all. Just to not let the dream of the future eclipse the present. We should never stop dreaming and never stop working to live better lives...but there's something to be said for being able to appreciate what we have.

After the sketch show ended, Sam moved up to the loft and opened up a small guys-only place. Nothing special or fancy, just an innocent little place for he and his friends to hang out, watch movies, that sort of deal. After it had been open about a year or so, Sam heard reports of new toys that had no place to stay and were on the verge of being donated. Without a second thought he opened the place up to them. The guys had to clean up their act a bit and the hang-out nature of the place was sacrificed, but it became a haven for new toys without a place to go. Many of the friends became sort of father figures to some of the toys that arrived.

Since then, Sam hasn't been up to much. He's still in a committed relationship with Snowball, and loves her more than ever. He still goes on vacations, and every place and every food is still the greatest in the world. But most of the time he stays up in the loft, just hanging out with friends, caring for newcomers, and generally living a mundane, everyday life.

And he couldn't be happier.