Vinyl Ninja Conquers Keepsake

No, the ninjas have not taken over my blog. I asked them to come as ambassadors for my ninja because we keep our batteries outside of the digital camera. I am too tired tonight to go get the camera, find the rechargable batteries, put them in the camera, take a photo of my ninja and then upload it to iphoto to finally copy his picture here...only to then remove batteries...you get the point. My ninja is blue, like the one on the far left of this sample, except that he's in the pose of the one shown in red, the third from the left.

I know, now you're tired after all of that description, right? "Why does this vinyl ninja matter so much?" "Get to the point, Kate!"

My theme has been my continued organization, with a transition to writing about what I have and why I have it. The "stories of my stuff" as I called it in the last post. My blue vinyl ninja has a story to tell. Since I know all about ninjas after my son took a class about ninjas (he's home schooled, so yes, there is a class about ninjas*), we'd better let the tale be told, lest we make them mad at us. Otherwise we might find a poisoned meal, be stabbed while walking up stairs, or be eviscerated while using the outhouse. (It's a good thing for indoor plumbing--one less place to worry about a ninja attack. Since we're not in Japan prior to the industrial revolution, I guess we're pretty safe anyway.)

As I examine what I own, I think about the fact that when I was going through my possessions a couple of years ago, I tossed out a keepsake that had been given to me by a dear friend. For years, the keepsake held an honored spot: a dust-free, uncluttered place, on my bedroom shelf. I loved it when I was first given this gift. It reminded me of my friend each time I saw it. It represented something I used to like a lot. Years pass and we grow (hopefully) and change. Some things come to mean more and others mean less. After many years, this particular keepsake lost its charm. It didn't speak to me in the same way it did when it first came to my home. My friend has given me subsequent gifts that speak to the person I've become. Thus, it was time for the keepsake to go.

Now, this was no mere bauble. It was something hand-crafted by an artist. It was expensive. Some would say that I should have kept it for its value. However, it was no longer serving the life I live. After reflecting a day or so with the keepsake in a bag, I gave it away. I found someone who liked the type of object it was and they were thrilled with the "gift" from me.

The keepsake "has left the building," (as used to be said about Elvis) and yet the vinyl ninja remains? Yes. It's not that I justified keeping the ninja, which anyone would say is a junky child toy made from a substance that is polluting the earth. It's that blue ninja tells a story, he tells several stories, thus he conquers the keepsake and wins my heart.

What IS the blue ninja's story? This particular blue ninja was part of the "survival goody bag" for the Milford-Bellingham-Franklin group that participated in the 2009 NaNoWriMo event. Being writers, most everyone in the group is good with puns, and the ninja was our "plot ninja" thrown in like a metal star to liven things up a bit. (My little allusion there is to "throwing stars," a ninja weapon.) I "won" NaNo my first year out, so blue ninja's first story is about accomplishing something to which I put my mind and effort. The point of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month, specifically, November each year. I set the goal, sat down to the laptop at various book stores, coffee shops and hotel lobbies with my fellow Milford-Bellingham-Franklin Wrimos (the nickname for people who do NaNoWriMo) and wrote a book. Blue ninja reminds me that I'm capable of such feats of wonder. Blue ninja is a reminder of the friends I've made through NaNoWriMo, too.

Blue ninja has another story, too. However, I'll save that for another day. He conquered a keepsake, so he's tired (and so am I).

What are some of your "stranger" treasures? Will you share the story of any of them with me? Feel free to share in the comments or email me directly.

*Ninja class: a local historian and former teacher runs classes for home schoolers. She offers things like folklore but calls them more engaging titles like "Zombie and Vampire History" as those titles appeal to teens, to whom her classes are geared. The ninja class was "The History of Ninjas" and actually explored a fascinating time in Japanese history, the development of the military in Japan, and examined the modern-day equivalent to "real" ninjas: special operations forces. Thus, the course covered history, folklore, Japanese art, culture and government, and the students then synthesized this information to make modern-day connections to the topics they explored. The course required a written paper each class session based on reading assignments in high school and college level history texts, and a final project with a paper. I read the books my son was assigned and found them fascinating!


P.S. If you ever find yourself in need of such a gumball-machine-type item as the vinyl ninja, Oriental Trading Company sells these toys, as do several other online party stores.