The Adventures of Dell: My Personal New Year Celebration Part #1: Sight Beyond Sight

This past September 24^th was my birthday. I originally wanted to have a big shebang and have a bunch of people out to eat. However, I opted for a smaller series of fun events with people that I love.

The weekend started early when I got my Thundercats Sword of Omens in the mail.

Okay, that sentence might have thrown you a bit. I am 28 years old, and in my possession is a children’s toy that I routinely swing around with the biggest smile on my face. And I. DON’T. CARE.

You should’ve seen my face when the UPS man came to the door. This was my reaction…

I immediately opened the box and began to play with it. See, I’ve wanted a Sword of Omens since I was four years old. That’s 24 years. TWENTY FOUR LONG YEARS. But why should this matter to me now, two and a half decades later?

First, one of the memories that I have with my Dad is cartoons. He introduced me to Thundercats, Silverhawks, He-Man, etc. We watched them together. We bonded over them. Those are some of my best memories with him.

Like most kids, you want the toys from your favorite cartoons. And I wanted this sword bad. My dad looked high and low for it, but he couldn’t find it anywhere. I think that hurt him more than it hurt me.

In looking at my childhood, there were a lot of things that I was looking for that I didn’t find, either. And I guess somewhere along the journey of life I’ve given up on them. There were also a lot of things that were taken from me. My experiences recently have shown that to me. Perhaps me taking the initiative to get the Sword at this point is symbolic of me reclaiming those things that were taken from me and reaching out to claim the things that I really want from life.

Y'know, one of the cool things about the Sword in the cartoon is that Lion-O could use this technique called "Sight Beyond Sight." He could use it to see what was really in his environment, beyond what is obvious. This piece of plastic can't do that...but I believe that ultimately I can, and I must. It's the only way to heal and move beyond.

Whether that's true or not, I still had a blast playing with my new toy. It was a great start to my personal new year celebration.