SECURITY BLANKETS--  I bet YOU have one!
By The Editor:  Steve Van Nattan

We all have those precious heirlooms in the closet, right?

There is a tattered blanket a little girl clung to until she was six years old.

How about the teddy bear with the missing eyes, but it must not be thrown away, for the little bear brought comfort to a little guy when he was scared.

Isn't it hard to throw out those rusting Tonka Toy trucks that Johnny used to grade his roads in the imaginary city under the tree in the back yard.

Well, you just THINK the security blankets go into the closet friend. I maintain we carry them along til we die-- We just make a switch which hides our habit and disguises the little kid in us all. Here is how it works:
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That Willy! Always had a rock in his pocket, right? Worthless rock too. Well, Willy is all grown up and wouldn't be caught with a rock in his pocket of course. He does have a set of 86 keys on a self-returning ring though, which goes Zingggggg when he pulls it out to unlock a door and returns with a "chunggggg" when the return spring works right. He also has a Swiss Army knife in a leather holster on his belt which has 43 different tools, even one to do emergency appendectomies. AND, on the other side on his belt is a 300 foot tape measure hanging there about to pull his britches down. But Willy NEEDS all those, er, "security tools".

Sandy had a dolly she dragged all over the world, well, at least HER world. It is all tucked away in a shoe box in the attic and gone of course. Well, not quite. It seems that reincarnation, which is heresy with humans, is possible with dollies. Sandy's dolly came back as a pink immaculate neurotic yapping poodle with a blue bow in his hair, and he is honored to be carried all over Sandy's much bigger 50 year old world, in spite of her friends' teasing.

Do you recall that old red wagon that Jack pushed all over the property and around the block as he went "Brrrrrmmmm, Brrrrrmmmm", and the neighbors thought it was so cute?  Well, some of the neighbours are groaning now, for Jack is 40, and the red wagon turned into a 1969 Chevy Pickup Truck, and red of course. And, the Hollywood mufflers go, "BRRRRRRMMMMM, BRRRRRRMMMMM" as he rolls in from the swing shift at midnight.

Billy's top dresser drawer used to be full of rocks, marbles, and string which he convinced Mom were absolutely essential to sustain happy days and self-worth. Mom wisely never touched that drawer.  Well, Billy went off the college, and on his first spring break, he came home and dumped the drawer into the trash. All gone, right? Oh, I don't know about that. Billy married and bought a nice little home with a yard tucked around behind the garage. You guessed it folks. That yard back there is just a much larger version of Billy's top drawer. It now comes complete with a pile of scrap metal, used tires which "I'm gonna use to make really neat flower planters", and what Billy calls, "spare parts".... "in case we need to fix the new one some day".

Megan's scrap book, many years after her young girl days is aging mercilessly in the closet. Megan is keeping a home now and does not have room for collecting those kinds of things you see. But, let's not ask her why she needs a zillion recipe notebooks and cook books covering half a wall in the kitchen. And, bits of paper, with recipes scribbled on them, are in every corner of the house and stuffed in the back cover of her Bible. They have been gleaned from every visit she makes around town and at church dinners. "Shufly CAKE! I have the pie recipe Mildred, but this is really great. Can I have the recipe?"

Fred is 45 now, and he would never be caught carrying a frog in his pocket, like back when he was ten years old. By the way, if you ever get out to Fred's place, ask him to see his coon hunting dogs-- Best kept dogs in five counties I dare say. Hauls them all over kingdom come in his old pickup truck, "Just in case I see a coon." Oh, sure!

Those little guy's coveralls that are all raggedy and hidden away in Grandma's memory box-- Her farmer son still goes to prayer meeting in Oshkosh coveralls. "Can't seem to get comfortable in those fancy clothes. Besides, God looks on the heart, not on the clothes."

Jack would never think of carrying a lucky rabbit foot now-- He is 55. But watch him panic when he misplaces his comb-- the one he has carried around for 15 years and half the teeth are missing. Huh?  "Not a good luck thing?" Oh sure buddy :-)

Danny used to collect Golden books, then Danny Orlis books-- until his closet and under his bed were an avalanche of literary wonder. He stopped collecting books though when he grew up, right? Don't jump to conclusions so fast.  Danny is the pastor of the Pine Street Baptist Church now, and just drop by his study. Every wall is covered by book shelves. Ask Danny if he has read all of them-- Answer: "Some of them twice." Ha, caught you Pastor Dan.

Do you recall Mary's big box of 876 different colors of Crayons? Past memories? Ha! Just check her sewing kit-- Millions of choices of thread. Her knitting box-- 95% of the yarn pieces are less than a foot long... "But those pretty colors..." How about her box of "art supplies"? The Crayons have simply given way to fancy pencils and oil pastels in 1289 colors. Does she ever use them? That is a rude question-- Of course she does. They are (Ssssssssh) her "security blanket" in the golden years. Just let her husband try to throw them away. And, when Mary passes on, her daughters will smile and cry a little as they dig through Mom's "art supplies".  Don't ask why please :-)

So, if you have not lost all of your "sense of wonder," you will be able to look at yourself and see how you have little things that help you feel comfortable with life like the old "security blanket."  

I have seen old men sell a piece of land worth thousands with merely a nod of the head.  But, when the old college mug falls on the floor and breaks, they have to go hide so no one will see the tears. 

Someone once said, and it might have been me, that there is absolutely nothing wrong with security blankets unless they replace your trust in the Lord or replace people. In fact, a lot of you folks need to go back and make that little kid in you happy once in a while. Maybe you should go up in the attic, or down in the basement, and bring out that box of memories more often.  They won't go to heaven with you.  Better have that kind of fun NOW.

There are some rather sad ones too, which you should think about if you are 18 years old or younger-- Avoid these ones by taking action today:

The career gal, Jill, and her upward mobility husband, decided when they got married that they would not have children so they could have a career.  "Furthermore;  we want sex to be uninhibited." Now, at 55, Jill has a $50,000 collection of those pretty dollies in glass cases in a wall to wall showcase in the drawing room. You should see the immaculate Shirley Temple doll-- one of only 23 others like it! And Jill's husband-- He volunteers to coach little league-- and he cries sometimes as he goes home after the game-- No little guy to jump up in the seat beside him.

Dr. Emerson, the only Psychology teacher I have ever admired, taught at Wheaton College and left it when it went dead. He moved to California and helped found Westmont College, soon leaving as it too went dead. Then Biola College nabbed him in his older years, and I got blessed to sit in his classes. One day he told us that early weaning of a boy could really frustrate him. Dr. Emerson assured us that research had proven that cigar smokers were virtually ALL suffering the affects of security lost from not being nursed, or they were weaned too early. Someone ought to print this out, and send it around to Rush Limbaugh. Maybe, just ONE time, he could be just a tiny bit humbled regarding tobacco. Could we say that Rush is a bit late getting around to being a sucker?

Benedict was such a religious little guy wasn't he? He never missed Mass with his Mom on Saturday evening. He actually said that going to Mass made him feel right. Well, time changed things didn't it? Benedict started finding pretty girls were a lot more fun than Mass, and later, he found that partying added even more security to his life. Benedict, at about age 20, realized his life was a mess. Recall the day he took Holy Orders and joined the Seminary fellows to devote his life to Mother Church. He seemed so "secure" in his new calling, didn't he? Well, that was 35 years ago, and a lot of vodka under the bridge, right? Now, Benedict is "not available" until after 1 PM, his housekeeper tells us. Benedict is lost in a bottle in a private grubby little room in the rectory, and his parish stands back in quiet desperation. Is security a matter of dedication, or is it a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Benedict has not yet learned that security is the Person of God-- not clinging to the trappings of an ecclesiastical monolith. If you know a Benedict, don't mock-- young Benedict got there wanting to do right. So, go around and hug him for Jesus sake, and introduce Him to the Master who takes any little kid (even at age 55) into the yoke with Him.

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Now, I bet you nosy readers would like to know what my security blanket is, right?

Well, I won't tell you, so there.  

By the way, if anyone has one of those old Trans-Oceanic Zenith Shortwave radios with all the gold buttons and the big black case, I would be interested in knowing what you would take for it.  I would even be willing to part with some 1950s McCoy crockery in exchange.  Have a strawberry cookie jar with just a tiny piece broken off of a leaf.  How about an original set of Tupperware ice tea spoons, circa 1955?

Enjoy!

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