Words and Thoughts — October 26, 2023

Hello again, alleged readers! After having spent a great deal of time in the attic over the last week, I came across a box of possessions from Stav III. I’m sure I’ve told you about Stav III, perhaps not though. Stav III is me, that is to say an earlier incarnation of Stav VII, which is current Stav, that is to say, also me, Stav Knudsenen. However, you know when you have a life experience that is so impactful, and so transformative, that you feel like a new person? Sort of like when a caterpillar eats part of a leaf for the first time. That level of metamorphosis. When one of those transformative events occurs on my own personal timeline, I dig out my Magna Doodle, mark it down, and thus become the next iteration of Stav, a little more learned, and hopefully a little more wise. I correspond to you today as Stav VII, awaiting my next moment of transcendental growth and learning. Yet, it’s of course important to remember where we came from, so let me tell you about the other Stavs, and their milestones:

• Stav I: I rolled off the couch at two weeks of age. This was the first action I ever took of my own volition. With my newfound agency, I would later become aware that I could, if I wanted, of my own accord, roll myself off anything if I so desired. 
• Stav II: I blew a snot bubble that popped and got in my eye. In most situations now, I avoid snot bubbles. My own, or others’. 
• Stav III: I ate an egg. 
• Stav IV: I ate two eggs. 
• Stav V: I spent 11 months in the foothills of the Ulaan Taiga, learning the mystical ways of the Dukha people from their Tengrinist Shamans. It was here that my understanding of the natural world around me coalesced, and I learned to awaken my bodily spirit’s awareness to the cosmic rhythms of the realms beyond our earthly world. It was also during this time that I ate a caribou eyeball, and it was similar enough to the experience of eating an egg for me to mark this down on the Magna Doodle. 
• Stav VI: Rabies vaccine… lookout world, here I come! 
• Stav VII: The Stav of today, man about town.

As I was saying, in the attic, I found a box of Stav III’s possessions. Stav III was a much younger fellow than I, and Stav III’s little treasure box included a couple toys, a gumball, and a wheat penny. One of the toys was of particular note: An orange wheel. A little bigger around than a ping pong ball, and maybe an inch wide. Just an orange, rubber wheel, on a shiny plastic rim. It was a toy that Stav III got to pick out for himself from a box of toys at the dentist, reserved only for the best patients who had not attempted to claw the dentist at any point during the appointment. For all I know, it could have fallen off a monster truck toy, that presumably had at least three other wheels just like this one. However, that truck, if it ever existed, was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was, unto itself, this wheel, as it lay there next to the likes of G.I. Joe, and a Spitfire balsa glider. Presented in this fashion, the wheel alone was the whole toy. And Stav III had to have it. It was a chaotic time in Stav III’s life, between various quantities of egg consumption and such, yet there was peace to be found in this wheel. This wheel brought symmetry and stability in a world of perceived imbalance and upheaval. Also, it was orange with a shiny bit, so that was pretty cool too.

I remember Stav III returning home, and my grandmother had stopped by. Of course, Stav III would NEED to show off the excellent new toy. And she, as she was so good at doing, reacted with all of the enthusiasm she could muster.

“What does it do??” she encouragingly inquired.

“It’s a wheel!!” Stav III would exclaim. “So, it rolls! But if you imagine it’s not a wheel, it can go on missions and fight the bad guys from Cobra. Or, if you throw it, it can be an airplane!”

This last week, I spent some time tossing the wheel around the attic, for old times’ sake, imagining it divebombing Cobra Commander’s base. I hope Stav VIII enjoys the wheel too.