Because of You...

Some
families
start
silly
traditions
on
a
whim.



That's how a wooden statue of a pregnant tribal woman began circulating among my family.

Years ago, my sister and her husband unknowingly acquired this art piece – when purchasing many things grouped together – during an estate sale.

The deceased was an ornament caster who tried using the statue to make a form for casting more. "It didn't work," my sister explained today. "The statue was still in the mold when we found her. And there were no copies."

"I was going to put her on the garage sale," she said, "but (another sister) talked me out of it." The two sisters imagined the fun this statue would provide as a traveling trophy.

Nobody remembers to whom she paid her first visit – "au naturel." But as the "Goddess of Fertility" passed into a home with youngsters, someone placed a long, wispy scarf about her neck to impose a bit of modesty. Soon she wore a sack dress marked with a symbol to celebrate a smoke-free year. That dress turned into a uniform for our marathon runner. Later she dawned stars and stripes for a Flag Day birthday, modeled fruits and vegetables for our produce manager, carried tips as a waitress greeting our retiring truck-driver, demonstrated backpacking a baby for a pregnant sister and, well.... you get the picture.

Eventually –
like a real
woman –
she acquired
a bag to hold
all her stuff.

Yes... all her stuff!


"SIMPLIFY," I thought during this turn of mine.

I stripped her clean, bagged her stuff, considered ditching it all and gained applause from many tradition-tired family members whom I'd telephoned for ideas about how tactfully to end a decade-old spoof.

This week my sister and her husband celebrated their wedding anniversary. In a card I wrote:

"It seems fitting – on this occasion – to return the Traveling Trophy to the two people responsible for her appearance. Perhaps like the Brady Bunch boys who – on the Hawaii episode – returned the Tiki idol to the island burial ground, you can find her a proper resting place."

I took a few photos of our gal for memory's sake.

In those moments... at those angles... in the bright light... under the lens... I saw – for the first time ever – her beauty.

As I wrapped her in tissue, packed, addressed and mailed the box, I thought about all the "dreaded" moments shared by each recipient of this Traveling Trophy. Like a hot potato, each would find some reason to "dump" her onto the next person. In hind sight, I now saw the fun. I wondered whether burying her wasn't a bit rash.

In yet another sister's words: "Maybe she really brings good luck?"


This evening my phone rang. The anniversary couple hooted over her arrival. "If I'd have known what was in the box, I'd have left it hanging on the mailbox and put 'Return to Sender'," my brother-in-law said in the background. His wife was undaunted by the Brady Bunch plan. Instead she began plotting our gal's next visit. And so "Beauty" will travel, Because of You...