Saturday, July 07, 2012

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?

2 comments:

Just Two Chicks said...

I carry a monkey I've named Reggae. My daughter is an amazing photographer, and carried her camera everywhere. Unfortunately she put it down at the Miami International Airport, stepped away to buy coffee, and when she returned it was gone. :( I hate this for her, because not only was her very nice camera taken, but also some amazing pictures from, very likely our last vacation as a family (the way it is now structured). She'll go off to art school, and eventually her brother will go... it's sad, memories gone, an unfortunate lesson learned, and right now, the inability to replace this camera with one like it.
I wonder if Po could have prevented this? :)

21 Wits said...

Of course having a pal like Po is really what every person needs! Unless of course, you have a special Gnome that follows you around! Hehehe!