Past: This is Bug. She is a collectible Deva doll handmade somtime around 1993 by a woman named Jackie Austin who lived in a house that was both in the woods and along the shore in Connecticut. (Deva is a Sanskrit word for “Angel.”) Jackie and my mother used to be good friends, and for a while my mother sold Jackie’s dolls at arts & crafts shows all around Connecticut. At one point, everyone in my family was involved in the Deva doll business. My father cut the wood for the base, my brother drilled the holes in the wood (ten cents per hole), and for the summer in between college and “the real world,” I glued eyes into the dolls’ heads and helped craft some of the doodads affixed to the hand-dyed clothes.
For years, Bug sat on my bookcase shelves during college and perched upon my dresser in the years following—staring both blankly and wisely upon me. Her “story” (all the Deva dolls have a Legend) was that she was the protector of Little Things and kept them from being or feeling trampled upon. Bug stood as a quiet reminder that it need not be so. Every living creature deserves to be treated fairly and kindly.
The lore is charming and thought-provoking, indeed. But the doll is just not quite my style. So, at some point during a move from one apartment to another, Bug (and my other Deva doll, Cassie) never got unpacked. For years, they remained in storage—wrapped up in a (very un-natural) plastic shopping bag. (Oh, bad karma!)
Present: I posted an ad and photo of Bug on Craigslist—and got a ton of responses. In the end, this doll went to a man whose younger sister has AIDS and, because of her illness, has been stepped upon by her own brothers and sisters. I thought it was beautiful that this man wanted to share with his sister this token of comfort and hope, and I couldn’t be happier to have given this collectible doll a new home—and a mission.
No comments:
Post a Comment