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R Toys Us.? A Holiday Contemplation of The Magic of Adult Toys and How They Can Change Our Lives I often find it difficult to model the kind of loving, enlightened behavior that I'm sure most readers of The Good Times aspire to. So in an effort to make it easier for me to set loose the pure spirit trapped in this body, I'm learning to play better and more often. For a gearhead like me mechanical toys like bicycles) motorcycles and airplanes help to evoke that playful little boy that got buried deep inside long ago I'm a shameless adrenaline freak and I don't expect many of you to understand that. But I do ask you to indulge me while I make my point here. Toys for you might be something very different; like your computer or your guitar or your stamp collection. For you women, it might be your jewelry collection, an occasional shopping spree or cooking utensils. No judgments; none any better or worse, just your little boy's and little girl's hearts' preference. From my earliest memories I've bubbled over inside and felt my heart race whenever I've seen or heard a motorcycle go by on the street. For many years I carried guilt about this boyful glee over motorcycles, as if allowing myself to feel and participate in that excitement somehow doesn't befit my status as a "grown man"; as if a grown man isn't supposed to play anymore and should always be "serious" about life. Every time I get too serious about something, like a relationship or an important project, I tighten up, lose my sense of fun and somehow screw it up. I mentally revert back to the serious way- my pop, and many of the depression - era men in my early life, taught me to be. But times are different now. we're one generation evolved from those serious guys. Or are we' So my toys help me to lighten UP help me have a common focal point, a vehicle of transformation, if you will, to rally around that allows me to be playful and open my heart and go back to that time when I could be my kid self, without the weight of the world on my shoulders, without the seriousness of having to save the world and
my soul all at the same time, and be able to just hang out with my buddies and talk about the stuff that guys talk about - much to the chagrin of our women I'm sure. Once we can get past the negative connotation of toys, that as possessions they must possess us and that they take us away from human intimacy, we can begin to appreciate how little play there is in our lives and maybe then see toys in a different light. Adult toys have provided me a way to "lose my minds' in play and joy. Just thinking about the word Toys brings to mind a lightheartedness a childlike innocence that most of lost a long time ago. There is an innocence to adult toys, as if we need to grant ourselves permission through the play inherent in the toy to free us up to play, to be less serious about life so then, as our hearts open in play, we carry that feeling into everything we do and touch others with that lighthearted feeling. To answer the question 'R Toys Us? We need to be aware of the tendency to become so enamored of our toys that' indeed they become us or us them. They are tools and teachers, as I see everything else in the universe, to open our minds and our hearts to the reasons we have come here in the first place. Have a Blessed Christmas and a Joyous New Year. Your Road Warrior and Sacred Scout, Bert Bota |