Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2009. I remember this moment as if it were yesterday. Mattie wanted to create an alligator. He had it in his mind that was what he needed to build. Except this wasn't from a kit and we did not have enough GREEN Lego pieces. That meant that Peter had to run to the Lego store and get all the supplies that Mattie needed to build what Mattie conceptualized. Of course that was hard to estimate, since Peter really had no idea what Mattie envisioned. As you can see, this was the final alligator project that Mattie and Peter created together. Mattie, with his usual sense of humor, put his hand in the alligator's mouth to show us how sharp his teeth were!
Quote of the day: There is strength in numbers. When the bricks stick together, great things can be accomplished. ~ Steve Klusmeyer (a quote about Legos)
I received two articles from friends today about LEGOs! One of the articles discusses how David Junge co-directed a documentary on Legos that is coming to movie theaters on July 31. I had no idea that Legos was headed to bankruptcy about a decade ago, but thankfully this family run business reinvented themselves and listened to the demands of their audience, they are now the LARGEST toy company in the world. Legos appeals not only to children, but they are loved by adults as well.
The second article about a Lego prosthetic arm, that I attached below, truly caught my attention today. When I saw the child featured in the article/video, he reminded me a little bit of Mattie. Maybe it was his energy level, his whimsical smile, or his clear passion and joy of Legos. Either case, the engineer who is working on the design of such prosthetics had this to say, “There were many problems I was trying to understand. The negative perception that kids have of prosthetics; the focus that companies put on engineering and not on the human part of a child; the social isolation felt by kids because of their condition and how hard it can be for them to build strong self-esteem."
I loved this quote because it speaks to this professional's level of empathy and understanding of the complexity of losing a limb. I would imagine that losing a limb at any age is devastating, but certainly for a child, it is incredibly scary and to have a prosthetic and seen as different are major psychosocial concerns. Concerns that this engineer wanted to learn more about and help children design arms they could feel good about, proud of, and empower them to use their creativity to help them regain use of functioning. All I know is when I watched this video, I watched it with Mattie in mind. I could just picture his reaction to a Lego prosthetic arm and it is hard to imagine that things that appear to just be "toys" are used for serious tools and medical resources today.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/beyond-the-brick-lego-documentary-offers-inside-look-number-one-toy-company/
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