This bag is AWESOME

It was a festival of celebrations in my family over the weekend. 

An anniversary , Mother’s Day and Mr B the Anarchist’s birthday.
Here he is  a wise old man at one day old.

It’s actually the beginning of our family celebration season which we sensibly planned to fall into the boring cold months of the year after most of the public holidays are over.

 

 

 

Every few weeks until the end of winter we celebrate another birthday , and have another get together.

 

And at every birthday for 25 years , this bag has reappeared. It is a part of our family!

It was a special part of Mr B’s third birthday which due to unforseen circumstances we were forced to celebrate in China. We had brought no presents with us and tried to make do with an abacus and  a set of wooden blocks which formed some game to which we just couldn’t make any fun rules. We went a little overboard with the compensatory celebrations on our return and spoiled him with presents. However there was no way I was going to wrap all those little components to have him tear them apart in two seconds, so we started a little game where he closed his eyes and magically the bag would be refilled with goodies.

 It wouldn’t have mattered whether we filled it up with dirty washing or all his own toys! He was drunk with excitement and demanded all manner of silliness and so three weeks later Jacque Cousteau wanted the same game and the same magic. The game grew sillier and longer, extending the pleasure and the next birthday was the baby, Mr D the Brewstar so his brothers took it upon themselves to be the entertainment squad with the magical Batman bag. With a 1 year old anything goes as long as you get the heartiest laugh.

 And so the magical powers of the Batman Bag grew to legendary proportions , and when our family increased to include Fairy Floss, she too became inducted into the rites of the Batman Bag.

It's a bit worse for wear now but we all had a sigh of affection for it when it made its appearance last night.

 

I know it’s just a bag, but humans everywhere have a natural tendency to create ritual at and around significant moments and to impart the holding power to a container of magic. In this case just a sturdy bag full of invisible stories. 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BATMAN BAG! 25 years is a pretty good innings and we hope to see you around for many more.