Designed by the Devil

This little device is called a Perplexus. It is a three dimensional maze that you have to turn all around while balancing a ball bearing on the maze floor. The object: to get the ball from #1 to #100. It is addictive. Fortunately, if you find that you wipe out at number 30, you can start just before number 27 and continue on. The same is true for, I think, number 63. When I found this game at Cole's Books I had to buy one for myself. Then I went back and bought the rest of them and gave one to several people at Christmas. My niece, whose 11 year old son is full of energy and intensity, says that she is so glad I gave her that thing because she can now go for hours without hearing a word from her son because he is so intensely working with the perplexus. By the way, he made it to number 100! That is what the photo is of. I thought that I had made it to #99, but he generously pointed out to me that that was only #66 because of the lines under the numbers. DARNIT!!!!

It was the morning of December 27th when I came downstairs to the family room to find him focused deeply on the game. I made hot chocolate for him and his sister (once she joined us) and we sat there quietly talking about stuff while he worked the game. His sister wanted a turn and he said she could have one as soon as he was done. She looked a bit disappointed (like she knew it would take FOREVER for him to be "done" with it), so I said, "Tell ya what....I can bring mine out but you can't get the two of them mixed up." So he asked, "Is yours DIFFERENT?" I said, "No, they are identical." So he asked, "Then what's the difference?" to which I replied, as any fan of the character of Sheldon on Big Bang Theory would do, "The difference is that one is YOURS and the other is MINE." I had a really hard time keeping a straight face when he looked up at me from the perplexus game with a "WTF????" look on his face. So, in the tradition of Sheldon himself, I brought mine out with a stick on star on it to differentiate the two games, one from the other, while singing, "A star! A star! Shining in the Night, just to show you that THIS ONE IS MINE!" They giggled and were off to the races with the games.

Yes, I do like to mess with the minds of children. Like when my Love's cousin was in town with her kids. The youngest came up to me and said, "Um, what's your name?" This after having hugged me just under an hour ago when they arrived. So I said, "Dude....you hugged me and you didn't even know my name?" His eyes got big and he said, "Well, my mom told me to." To this I said, "Dude...do you do EVERYTHING your mom tells you to?" and he said, "Well, no. Not really." So I smiled and said, "Good. Then you and I are going to get along just fine." He smiled the biggest smile I have ever seen on a five year old. Seriously, who really expects their child to do EVERYTHING they tell them to do? I think a wee bit of rebellion is healthy in any parent/child relationship, especially in the parent/child relationships that are not my own. It serves to keep everyone on their toes.

You got it. The perplexus is not the ONLY thing that was designed by the Devil! Mwahahahaha!

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com
http://www.youtube.com/trentdeerhorn