When I was 13, we took a family vacation to Denmark. While we were there, we made the obligatory trip to Legoland. My thirteen year old self was completely underwhelmed by the visit. I thought I was too old and too cool to get excited over Lego replicas of the Alps, Taj Mahal and White House. (Although I'll admit the Lego traffic school was kind of neat!)
While we were there, my mom bought me a Lego key chain. It was a little Lego girl, kind of nifty, and so I put it on my keychain. Twenty Five years later, I still have a Lego girl on my key chain. She isn't the original, I've replaced her twice. (Those little Legos are pretty hardy.) My current Lego girl's face has completely rubbed off, and she's missing her hands, but she's hanging in there.
I'm not quite sure why I've kept my Lego girls for so long. Once I was in high school it was kind of a "thing," but beyond that it was something more. My Lego girl reminds me of who I was and who I am. She's utilitarian, the anti-Barbie, and my own little feminist talisman.
A few years ago, about the time Hollis started to pay attention to Legos, he noticed my Lego girl. And he and Holden ask about her all the time. They want to know how I got my first Lego girl, all about Legoland, and why I still have her on my key chain. Oh, and why I won't let them have her to add to their personal Lego collections!
The week before Christmas, I went to New York for work. While I was there, I decided to go check out the Lincoln Center tree and skating rink and take a few photos on my iPhone for the boys. Walking along 5th Avenue, I saw the Lego store. Like the mother of any boy of a certain age, I had to pop into the store and check it out. Just so I could tell the boys about it, of course! And near the check out counter, I found them. The Lego keychains. I wasn't able to find a family, but I got pretty close. Now we all have Lego keychains.
Hollis is the kinght and Holden is the jester. And both boys are thrilled with their tiny avatars.
They mean something different to each of us. You may think of football and tiaras or traveling to see relatives for the holidays, but for military families a homecoming is so much more. Yesterday, the USS Winston Churchill, a destroyer that is part of the Truman Carrier Strike Group, came home to Norfolk after a 7 month deployment. The weather was bitterly cold. (Well, it was bitterly cold for Norfolk!) But the piers and heated tents were still crowded with families carrying signs, flags and a lot of nervous anticipation.
Asthe owner of my own business, military homecomings can be a pit of a pain. The schedules are always changing; I basically have to block out an entire day for one homecoming photoshoot because I can't risk the time changing to interfere with another appointment. I have to drive 30 to 45 minutes to Norfolk or Virginia Beach, fight the crowds, find parking and wait in the cold or heat. (For the record, I think the heat in July is worse!) And, because I do these sessions for free for military families through Operation: Love Reunited, I don't make any money.
If you start out talking about Senator Reid, a gay military service member, and Lady Gaga it does sound like the beginning of a bad joke, doesn't it? Luckily, the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell isn't a joke, but it did involve Lady Gaga and Harry Reid.
Have you seen the previews out for the new movie Gulliver's Travels? I know I can't miss them because every. single. time. one comes on my two little boys start asking me when the movie is coming out and when I'm taking them to see it! The movie will definitely be part of our winter break, but the co-stars of the movie, Jack Black and Jason Segel, also have a wonderful new recording of The Little Drummer Boy out for the holidays. The best part is that the two talented performers are donating all of their proceeds to Blue Star Families. I can't think of a better demonstration of the holiday spirit then to help out military families.
Last night, Jack Black appeared on The Jay Leno show to promote his new movie, Gulliver's Travels. While on the show, Jay Leno showed a clip from the animated video of The Little Drummer Boy and Jack Black talked about donating the proceeds to Blue Star Families.
(Start watching the video at about 2:45.)
Jay Leno: I thought this was pretty cool. You and your co-star in Gulliver's Travels, Jason Segel, you did something very nice. Tell people what you did.
Jack Black: We rocked an old chestnut, holiday song you may know. The Little Drummer Boy. Beautiful jam. We rockified it, because it was dying to be rockified. You remember back in the 70's when David Bowie and Bing Crosby did their version of it? We did that version, but with an extra zing. And we're giving all the money to charity. Blue Star Families.
Jay Leno: That's the troops?
Jack Black: Yes, yes, well military families started this organization for other military families, supporting.
Jack Black: You can get that on iTunes by the way, if you don't mind my plug.
On a personal note, I have to share what happened when I was watching this clip in my home office this evening. My 6 year old, Hollis, knows so much about Blue Star Families. He's so proud of his Navy dad and his Army uncle and his Air Force Grandpa. Don't worry. Hollis has his priorities straight. He'll yell out "Go Navy, beat Army!" whenever it's needed. Same for the Air Force. Heck, he loves this Navy versus Air Force video set to Dynamite and tries to do all the dance moves. But I digress.
The point is, Hollis is all about the military and he understands just how important it is to support military families, even at the age of 6. He loves to help out at Blue Star Families events and likes to talk about Mommy's job "helping military families" to anyone who will listen.
So tonight, Hollis walked into my office and stopped to watch the clip saying, "Mommy, that's Jack Black! He's Kung Fu Panda!" He listened to Jack Black talk about The Little Drummer Boy (a recent iTunes download Hollis has already heard many times in this house) and when he heard him talk about Blue Star Families his eyes got huge! "Mommy! He knows all about you!" Hollis exclaimed. Then he wanted to know if Blue Star Families, a nonprofit, would now be rich! I laughed, but I think Jack Black and Jason Segel would be happy to hear just how much faith my little guy has in them and their ability to raise money for a good cause. I think they'd also be thrilled to know that even my 6 year old son understand just how wonderful their donation to BSF really is.
I have to thank Jack Black and Jason Segel. Not just for their donation to help military families, but because my 6 year old now thinks I'm the coolest mom with the best job ever. At least on the job front, I think I have to agree.
In the Summer of 2007, I attended my first BlogHer convention. I had been blogging for about a year and had just begun flirting with writing about politics. I had very firm opinions about everything from women's rights to foreign policy, but I wasn't a political blogger. Oh no. Why would anyone listen to what I had to say about politics?
But at BlogHer 2007, sitting in an audience of women (and a few men), I listened to Elizabeth Edwards talk about politics, her battle with breast cancer, and the power of women online, and all of that started to change.
I had supported John Edwards from my cozy armchair during his presidential run in 2004. I supported him again during the Democratic primary in 2008. And shortly after BlogHer in 2007, I heard that a group of women I greatlyadmire were starting a political blog for mothers supporting John Edwards for president. I askedpleadedbegged to be a part of it. And all of a sudden, I was a MOMocrat.
I don't want to revise history. Despite the fact that John Edwards turned out to be a complete asshat and a poor excuse for a human being, leading up to the 2008 primary he was the only one talking about the issues that mattered most to me. He was the first Democratic candidate to come up with a comprehensive health care reform plan and his talk of "Two Americas" brought the plight of poverty in the US to light. Poverty isn't something that politicians like to talk about. Not a lot of poor people are out there making political donations and their advocates don't have a lot of money either. But John and Elizabeth Edwards were acting as the voice for the people in this country who need it most. I admired that. I still do.
Elizabeth Edwards inspired me to write about my convictions. She inspired me to become a MOMocrat, to let my voice as a mother, a woman and a citizen be heard. I like to remember the time I had a chance to participate in a conference call with Ms. Edwards. (Some of my lucky fellow MOMocrats in California got to meet with her in person.) Here's an excerpt from my blog post after the call:
