Every Christmas as an
adult I am reminded of a favorite gift I received as a young boy. My gift
request was an Erector Set, a toy construction system consisting of various
metal beams with hole for assembly using nuts and bolts. I wanted the premium
version with its myriad of pulleys, gears and wheels, and a small electric
motor.
The gift had been
wrapped for several days, sitting under the Christmas tree. Every time I passed
by, it felt like it was calling my name. When no one was watching I would shake
the gift. I thought it felt heavy enough to be the metal construction set. I was
certain I could hear the jiggle of nuts and bolts. I was convinced I was going
to receive the Erector Set.
I begged my parents to
let me open the gift early. The answer was always NO! That was the only gift I
was receiving that year. If opened early, there would be nothing to open on
Christmas morning.
Every Christmas Eve we
would go to my grandparents’ house for the ‘Festa dei sette pesci’ … the
Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes, a traditional fasting meal where meats were
not served. My parents said I could open the gift when we returned from my
grandparents. I should have stopped there. I didn’t.
I was willing to
sacrifice the cod, clams, mussels and calamari. Forget the scallops, fried
smelts, and pasta with seafood. I pushed one more time to open the gift. My
parents finally acquiesced. They were apparently tired of hearing from their
pushy son. I sacrificed the meal of seven fishes and opened the gift.
It was the best dream
gift I had ever received, and I immediately began skimming through the
instructions to pick my first project. By the time my parents came home, I had
constructed a Ferris wheel. Even they were impressed. “Maybe someday you’ll own
a carnival,” my father had said.
Well, I never ended up owning
a carnival, nor did I have any desire to own one! But to this day, it still
begged the question: Did my preference for childhood toys predict my future?
Sort of, but not exactly.
I ended up with three
vocations in life: engineer, minister, writer.
Certainly, the Erector
Set forecasted my engineering side. The toy had little to do with my minister
side which is more the call of God, and my childhood experiences always manage
to weave themselves into my writing. So two out of three is not bad.
Oh, there’s one more
thing. I love assembling Ikea furniture! It’s not a whole lot different than an
Erector Set.
Robert Parlante
December 2016
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