To celebrate Paul’s 10th birthday, we had a “Lego expert” come over and throw a Lego party. 6,000 bricks. 90 minutes of continuous instruction. Drills on the names of specific pieces. These boys were in the presence of one of their modern day shaman working the true magic of Lego as they had never seen before.
Outcome: mesmerized, silent attention. No fart jokes. No crazed rampaging, wrestling, throwing, jumping. Not even a desire for Nintendo, Playstation, etc. Just hard core questions about why this piece and not that. Rapid iterating and reworking of the assignment. The instructor was nothing short of a mystic, casting a spell that Rasputin would have envied.
To add to the sense of mystery: at the end of the session, all the boys frantically helped the instructor put away the thousands of bricks into their exact locations in the myriad of boxes. Yes, the same boys who struggle to notice the disarray they create all around themselve on any other day. Not sure where we had “gone to,” but damn it was amazing.
Once the session ended, it was time for burgers, fries and cake. The familiar characteristics of time and space returned. Will we do it again? Shoot I sure hope so.
Getting Drilled, © 2012, Abe Pachikara (Click for larger images)
Boxes and Boxes of Fabulous Bricks, © 2012, Abe Pachikara (Click for larger images)
A Triumphant Day: Legos, Burgers, Cake, © 2012, Abe Pachikara (Click for larger images)
