Bears Number 112 and 113 
Tyana J LittleString
Isabelle
Samy Lucius PutnamIt came up in an online blog - how comforting a friend is a book? I had to think hard about this, because, after all, I love to read, read everywhere. I’m never without a book, that’s why I carry a big purse or a daypack. Well, that’s one reason, knitting is the other one. So I would say that it is a comfort to have a book with me at all times, but…. it is also a comfort to know that I could knit whenever I want to, especially when I am isolated or when I am fearful, doubtful, resentful. Sometimes I become oblivious to the events around me when I knit; sometimes I become more tuned in. I seem to knit myself into the kind of mood I need at the time, either threading my problems into the chaos or pulling them out, strand by strand. Knit one purl one is a meditation. It is a step-by-step construction of benevolence.
The blogger stated that books are not “normal social connections,” and continued to say that they are imaginary friends, and that our affiliations with them might be safer than the ones we have with humans. Well, I am an expert on imaginary friends. Mine include a doctor of psychology, Dr. Karl Steinfeld (my personal shrink,) a traveling companion named Tyana J LittleString (who is a teddy bear,) an Inner Child named Isabelle (a doll) Samy Lucius Putnam, a frog with an attitude. I also have a great number of literary characters in my head, some of them have found their places in imaginary novels, others are still waiting to be placed. Add to this the number of people I correspond with in blogs, boards, and emails – they too have to be categorized as imaginary, since I have never seen any of them in the flesh – and you find me busy interacting into the early hours of the morning. While I agree that my imaginary friends don’t constitute social connections; we don’t shake hands, hug, scream at each other, file for divorce, I hesitate at the word “normal.” What seems normal to a busy entrepreneur seems hectic to me. What seems normal to me must be downright odd to a person with a full calendar of obligations.
While isolation at an early age does invite damage to the human soul and prolonged separation from human contact is not conducive to socialization, I think that “people like me,” elderly, living alone, creative, not generally deprived of social contacts (I am the decider) are entitled to a good dose of solitude. Let us be happy with our imaginary friends!
As to what is first on the list of comforting friends – books or knitting – I will probably have to be threatened with an imaginary island to make a decision. Oops, can’t threaten me, already have one. The island of Ixla, where stuffed animals rule, where Cornelius C Chatworth (another teddy bear) roams on his dune buggy. Let me see………if you promise that I can take my 32-gallon trashcan filled with yarn, and you give me a few extra number seven needles, I’ll put knitting at the top of my list. Who knows, I might incorporate text into my design and knit my own storybook. And I promise to finish the next 100 Bears for Africa.
The blogger stated that books are not “normal social connections,” and continued to say that they are imaginary friends, and that our affiliations with them might be safer than the ones we have with humans. Well, I am an expert on imaginary friends. Mine include a doctor of psychology, Dr. Karl Steinfeld (my personal shrink,) a traveling companion named Tyana J LittleString (who is a teddy bear,) an Inner Child named Isabelle (a doll) Samy Lucius Putnam, a frog with an attitude. I also have a great number of literary characters in my head, some of them have found their places in imaginary novels, others are still waiting to be placed. Add to this the number of people I correspond with in blogs, boards, and emails – they too have to be categorized as imaginary, since I have never seen any of them in the flesh – and you find me busy interacting into the early hours of the morning. While I agree that my imaginary friends don’t constitute social connections; we don’t shake hands, hug, scream at each other, file for divorce, I hesitate at the word “normal.” What seems normal to a busy entrepreneur seems hectic to me. What seems normal to me must be downright odd to a person with a full calendar of obligations.
While isolation at an early age does invite damage to the human soul and prolonged separation from human contact is not conducive to socialization, I think that “people like me,” elderly, living alone, creative, not generally deprived of social contacts (I am the decider) are entitled to a good dose of solitude. Let us be happy with our imaginary friends!
As to what is first on the list of comforting friends – books or knitting – I will probably have to be threatened with an imaginary island to make a decision. Oops, can’t threaten me, already have one. The island of Ixla, where stuffed animals rule, where Cornelius C Chatworth (another teddy bear) roams on his dune buggy. Let me see………if you promise that I can take my 32-gallon trashcan filled with yarn, and you give me a few extra number seven needles, I’ll put knitting at the top of my list. Who knows, I might incorporate text into my design and knit my own storybook. And I promise to finish the next 100 Bears for Africa.
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