![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Donkey-don.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
One of the most prized toys in my Playbox is my cousin Don, who\u2019s old enough to be my father, yet in all the time I\u2019ve known him he\u2019s never grown up, even now, at 90. He\u2019s the quintessential example of a person who has lived a life of play \u2013 well, he also worked, but that\u2019s beside the point. Or maybe that IS the point. Despite working, he always made time for fun, and so we grew together, along that same path.<\/p>\n
Truly, Don’s among the most creative people I know, as can be seen by stepping foot into his house full of toys, handmade jokes, and of course, art.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/living-room.png\")
<\/p>\n
His style is whatever happens, happens \u2013 unpolished, imperfect and incredibly inventive.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Dons-wire-dog.png\")
He’s fabulous at capturing gestures…so graceful.<\/p>\n
He nimbly morphs wire, clay, glass, paper, wood, useless whatnots, into utterly clever, comical, and unique statements.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/marionette-and-snoopy.png\")
I mentioned I’d like to make marionettes \u2013 he beat me to it.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/bookworms.png\")
Inspired by my bookworm, Don made one too. He even finished his.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/bird-with-bandana.png\")
Clearly I’m not the only one who loves his work.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve played together a great deal over the years at his house on the beach, in his magical garage, where we\u2019re forever kids having fun.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/magical-garage.png\")
<\/p>\n
I periodically take immensely embarrassing pictures of myself for laughs and for family’s eyes only. Although everyone’s amused by them, Don has the audacity to display them proudly and prominently in his home. We\u2019re sincerely each other\u2019s biggest fans. The Playbox wouldn’t be complete without him. Here\u2019s a little something I wrote about us.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/me-and-don.png\")
<\/p>\n
Our Story<\/p>\n
There once was a boy with a creative bean up his ass,
\nwho never much cared whether the thing would pass,
\nyet when he moved to the beach and squatted in the sand,
\nthe bean was squeezed out, and burrowed deep in the land,
\nproviding a perfect place for the boy to play.<\/p>\n
Along came a girl with a creative bean in her ear,
\nwhich made her lean in so she could better hear,
\nuntil one day she bent totally in half,
\nhence the bean fell out and rolled down her calf,
\nplanting itself at her feet so every day she’d remember to play.<\/p>\n
When boy met girl, a few years in,
\ndamn if they weren’t introduced as kin.
\nFrom the onset they’d been sharing genes,
\nnow they looked at each other and screamed,
\n\u201cHey! Matching beans!\u201d<\/p>\n
And so it went from that day on,
\nthe girl named Soozer and the boy named Don,
\nwere forever connected by their creative whims
\nhis often comical, hers sporting odd limbs.<\/p>\n
To each other they were a huge inspiration
\nalways in awe of each other’s imagination.<\/p>\n
If there was one thing they’d repeatedly say
\nit’s, \u201cDamn we’re glad we were made this way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most prized toys in my Playbox is my cousin Don, who\u2019s old enough to be my father, yet in all the time I\u2019ve known him he\u2019s never grown up, even now, at 90. He\u2019s the quintessential example of a person who has lived a life of play \u2013 well, he also worked, … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-playing"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416,"href":"https:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions\/416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ponderingpool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}