Po, the CBC, and me

You get a lot of interesting looks when you walk around with an enormous and serious-looking camera bag hanging off your shoulder, and said bag in turn has a fairly well-worn Teletubby figurine dangling from the handle.

This is the scene from the chair at the CBC in Montreal. I had come to the epicentre of our national broadcaster's Quebec operations yesterday to talk about the DNS Changer malware threat with teams from The National and News Now, and a little bit of Po seemed to be the perfect way to relax and get into the groove before the red light went on.

I've often been asked why a grown man channels a gibberish-spewing, psychedelic little being with a screen in her tummy. Here's why I do it:

1 - It keeps me from taking life too seriously.
2 - It keeps me from taking myself too seriously.
3 - It makes strangers smile.

I scaffed this particular one from our eldest son a whole lot of years ago, a cast-off remnant of a Happy Meal. I don't know what possessed me to start carrying it around, but since I adopted it (her?) as an ersatz travel gnome, she's been everywhere with me, and I've never missed an opportunity to shoot her in all sorts of fascinating places. She's a little tattered and faded now, but over the years she's become an important part of our family's landscape.

Today, we're taking her to the hospital. She - along with the kid from whom I scaffed her so long ago - is going to try to coax out another smile from a day that otherwise has none. Not sure she'll manage the feat, but at least it's worth a shot. Because tikkun olam - repairing the world - starts with the smallest of gestures, and it only grows from there.

Your turn: How do you keep life from becoming too serious?