no.80 - The Grand Poohbah

Yesterday my daughter and two of her friends, all aged four years, asked to stop by Pooh's House on the way home from school. If you aren't aware of it, there is an old tree at Harvard with a small door at the bottom labeled "Pooh."

As you can imagine, Pooh is never home, but looking inside, sometimes things are found, like a pretty rock or a small teacup sized for Piglet.

Peeking in the tree and imagining that Pooh might have been there only a little while before makes for a Very Exciting Trip.

Yesterday, however we found something decidedly less charming: A book of matches hand inscribed with the message, "Its your Lucky Day! Have a good one!"

I will assume that you have instantly formed an opinion about qualities of the person who left this gift. I would ask that you withhold judgment for a moment so that we can formulate as clear a picture as possible.

Consider the following:

Item #1: This person is enthusiastic!
Both sentences are punctuated with exclamation points. In fact he (I am assuming it is a male) went the extra mile to add "Have a good one!" to his initial message.

Item #2: This person is dedicated.
While it appears he has signed his work with the initial "W", this is just a jagged squiggle left behind as he tried to get his pen to work. You can not see it clearly online, but were you to hold it in your hand, you would see the zig-zag starts, inkless, on the other side. He wanted to write his message to the kids so badly that he had to expend extra effort to get started.

Item #3: This person does not smoke.
The pack of matches is full, not one has been pulled or struck.

Item #4: This person is a giver.
He gave matches to kids knowing he would never receive any thanks for it.

Item #5: This person thinks outside the box.
Given that the sign reads "Pooh" we can all be glad that he did not take the obvious emotionally disturbed route and treat the sign as a label for what he could fill Pooh's house with.
So, we have a creative, generous, enthusiastic, dedicated non-smoker.

For a brief moment, this was how my daughter saw him - as someone great who left a gift. She did not know what matches are. When I explained how matches make fire, how they are not a toy, how they could really hurt someone, she did not take it in at first.

Then, I explained that this was the reason we don't talk to strangers. Here was someone who does not know you, who wants to hurt you. Despite appearances, even a four year old could see what sort of person this was.

What we cannot know is exactly who, which is a shame, because I have a gift I would like to give him in return.