Even Whangdoodles have presence!

I have loved Julie Andrews since I saw her on stage in New York in 1956 in "My Fair Lady".  She opened up her mouth and let the tones come out and the songs remain a permanent fixture in my brain.  But I sold her short;  it's an easy trait to get into.   Not only could she sing but she could write and write she did, "The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles".   I read the book to my son, Jim, time and time again!   He would tell me what he thought a whangdoodle was!   And it changed and grew with time!   Just like the author, the subject was not content to be static!

He said his model for a whangdoodle was that the whangdoodle looked like a moose with short legs, he had horns and a bad sweet tooth (so did Jim!)  The Whangdoodle grew a new set of bedroom slippers on his feet every year.  (We bought Jim a new set of unattachable bedroom slippers each year).   And the main Whangdoodle trait was that the creature loved candy!  (Candy gave Jim a high as well as it gave us high dental bills.)   Jim had a unique way of reading himself into any book that he loved.   I called it identification with same;  he called it loving a particular book.

Books are so important for modeling for children and adults.   One could throw the entire Bible out and remember two verses and have a modeling initiative:   God is love and Be Ye Kind.   Even a whangdoodle could and should remember those six words.   Even a fanciful creature could grow a new set of bedroom slippers over those six words if he/she would remember them and react favorably and often to them.