The Ridiculous Joys of a Plastic Dinosaur
If you haven’t seen anything about “Dinovember” you really must look it up immediately! On their Facebook page it’s listed as “Just for Fun” and that is exactly what it is, fun. I discovered it last year, along with half the world and became somewhat obsessed with the whole idea. Put simply for those who haven’t seen it, a couple created scenes with plastic dinos to surprise their children each morning in November. These were amazingly creative scenes that must have taken hours to set up. I was totally hooked and couldn’t wait to see what the next day would bring. Needless to say I decided that I too needed dinos to play with. After much searching I found an entire set of dinos to play with. I took them with me while on photo shoots and added them to scenes and thought up things for them to do and thoroughly enjoyed myself. None of it was particularly spectacular, with the exception of when we set off fireworks with them, but fun all the same. My daughter & my nieces enjoyed it and I decided that when my daughter went back to college she needed a dino to keep her company. That’s when it happened, I met my dino muse. While rummaging through the Dollar Store I found a new Trex. He was very silly looking and different from the one I already had. There were two left, so I bought one for my daughter and the other for my nieces. I stuck one of them in a care package and mailed it off to my daughter. I took the other one to work to get it to my nieces. As he set there on my desk looking at me, I discovered that he made me smile every time I glanced his way. It was the middle of October and I was having a particularly hard time and decided that I needed a distraction. I set up a challenge for myself. Knowing that Dinovember was coming up and not wanting to compete with the pro’s, I would try my hand at posting dino pictures, but with my own twist. I would figure out something for my desk dino to do every day for the rest of the month only using things that were in my office.
That’s when the life lessons from a plastic dino began. I named him Jolly Jr. (my original Trex was dubbed Jolly) because he had a ridiculously silly grin on his face. He was amazingly photogenic, and for the 10 minutes that it took me to set up the shot, he provided me total distraction. Then very bravely (for me) I would post the picture on Facebook. As the day’s went by Jolly Jr. received more & more likes and even started eliciting comments! I was amazed. While at a function two different people came up to me and told me how much they looked forward to “what Jolly would do next.” My brother was with me and he commented that he didn’t get it and thought maybe I had lost it. The lady that was talking to us just looked at him and said she enjoyed it because it was fun. For me this was a defining moment. I had shared something that amused me, took some creative thought and brought me joy and was now bringing joy to others! My heart sang. The rest of the month flew by soon Halloween was approaching. Lots of possibilities for costume pictures for Jolly with a final costume picked on Halloween. On November 1st it was time for me to have a final farewell picture. After all my self imposed challenge was over. I knew he needed a grand send off so I built him a hot air balloon so that he could leave in style. I was heart broken. As I uploaded his last picture my fingers were literally shaking so bad I could hardly type his final post. People, I had tears in my eyes! The response to the picture was wonderful, others were sad and didn’t want him to go either. Close friends suggested that surely he would come back for special occasions. Some how this made me feel hopeful that there was a future for Jolly Jr. and eased my sadness.
Finally the take away from playing with a plastic dino was multilayered. On a creative level it was an entertaining challenge to come up with things for Jolly Jr. to do every day. It forced me to look at everyday ordinary things in a different light. To take advantage and be aware of random opportunities in the world around me. And how to set up photo shoots for a plastic dino. On a educational level, Jolly Jr. taught me about the power of social media on a personal level. While intellectually aware of how powerful it is I, personally had never experienced it. I have a very small facebook group and am not prone to posting. So for me even in my small facebook world the response to Jolly was amazing. My daughter took it to an even high level by sharing Jolly on her Tumblr page. Even my daughter, who is much more savvy about these things, was surprised at the response the Jolly elicited. I can’t even express my shock and delight when she shared the outcome of her post with me. Most importantly was my personal edification. Not only did Jolly Jr. provide me with 10 minutes of joy a day, but he provided it for others as well. The idea that something as ridiculous as a plastic dinosaur could bring even a fleeting smile to someones face is wonderful thing. Some how it makes me feel connected, that we all share common ground and that it’s important to find joy in the small things in life….even a plastic dinosaur.
If you would like to see Jolly Jr.’s photos you can follow him on Pintrest at http://www.pinterest.com/bbrisor/jolly-jr/
If you haven’t seen anything about “Dinovember” you really must look it up immediately! On their Facebook page it’s listed as “Just for Fun” and that is exactly what it is, fun. I discovered it last year, along with half the world and became somewhat obsessed with the whole idea. Put simply for those who haven’t seen it, a couple created scenes with plastic dinos to surprise their children each morning in November. These were amazingly creative scenes that must have taken hours to set up. I was totally hooked and couldn’t wait to see what the next day would bring. Needless to say I decided that I too needed dinos to play with. After much searching I found an entire set of dinos to play with. I took them with me while on photo shoots and added them to scenes and thought up things for them to do and thoroughly enjoyed myself. None of it was particularly spectacular, with the exception of when we set off fireworks with them, but fun all the same. My daughter & my nieces enjoyed it and I decided that when my daughter went back to college she needed a dino to keep her company. That’s when it happened, I met my dino muse. While rummaging through the Dollar Store I found a new Trex. He was very silly looking and different from the one I already had. There were two left, so I bought one for my daughter and the other for my nieces. I stuck one of them in a care package and mailed it off to my daughter. I took the other one to work to get it to my nieces. As he set there on my desk looking at me, I discovered that he made me smile every time I glanced his way. It was the middle of October and I was having a particularly hard time and decided that I needed a distraction. I set up a challenge for myself. Knowing that Dinovember was coming up and not wanting to compete with the pro’s, I would try my hand at posting dino pictures, but with my own twist. I would figure out something for my desk dino to do every day for the rest of the month only using things that were in my office.
That’s when the life lessons from a plastic dino began. I named him Jolly Jr. (my original Trex was dubbed Jolly) because he had a ridiculously silly grin on his face. He was amazingly photogenic, and for the 10 minutes that it took me to set up the shot, he provided me total distraction. Then very bravely (for me) I would post the picture on Facebook. As the day’s went by Jolly Jr. received more & more likes and even started eliciting comments! I was amazed. While at a function two different people came up to me and told me how much they looked forward to “what Jolly would do next.” My brother was with me and he commented that he didn’t get it and thought maybe I had lost it. The lady that was talking to us just looked at him and said she enjoyed it because it was fun. For me this was a defining moment. I had shared something that amused me, took some creative thought and brought me joy and was now bringing joy to others! My heart sang. The rest of the month flew by soon Halloween was approaching. Lots of possibilities for costume pictures for Jolly with a final costume picked on Halloween. On November 1st it was time for me to have a final farewell picture. After all my self imposed challenge was over. I knew he needed a grand send off so I built him a hot air balloon so that he could leave in style. I was heart broken. As I uploaded his last picture my fingers were literally shaking so bad I could hardly type his final post. People, I had tears in my eyes! The response to the picture was wonderful, others were sad and didn’t want him to go either. Close friends suggested that surely he would come back for special occasions. Some how this made me feel hopeful that there was a future for Jolly Jr. and eased my sadness.
Finally the take away from playing with a plastic dino was multilayered. On a creative level it was an entertaining challenge to come up with things for Jolly Jr. to do every day. It forced me to look at everyday ordinary things in a different light. To take advantage and be aware of random opportunities in the world around me. And how to set up photo shoots for a plastic dino. On a educational level, Jolly Jr. taught me about the power of social media on a personal level. While intellectually aware of how powerful it is I, personally had never experienced it. I have a very small facebook group and am not prone to posting. So for me even in my small facebook world the response to Jolly was amazing. My daughter took it to an even high level by sharing Jolly on her Tumblr page. Even my daughter, who is much more savvy about these things, was surprised at the response the Jolly elicited. I can’t even express my shock and delight when she shared the outcome of her post with me. Most importantly was my personal edification. Not only did Jolly Jr. provide me with 10 minutes of joy a day, but he provided it for others as well. The idea that something as ridiculous as a plastic dinosaur could bring even a fleeting smile to someones face is wonderful thing. Some how it makes me feel connected, that we all share common ground and that it’s important to find joy in the small things in life….even a plastic dinosaur.
If you would like to see Jolly Jr.’s photos you can follow him on Pintrest at http://www.pinterest.com/bbrisor/jolly-jr/