Morgan's 1st Toy/The Power Of Words

      When I was a little kid, the hottest toy was Tickle Me Elmo. I was the biggest little Sesame Street fanatic in the whole world, so getting this toy at about a year and a half of age was incredible. Life changing, even.

      For some reason, I have a distinct memory of sitting in my highchair in the living room, watching Sesame Street, and of course the occasional Teletubbies, with a baby spoon death-gripped in one hand, and a vanilla Snack-Pack cup in the other. There was most likely pudding shmeered all over my face too, but that's besides the point.

      Elmo. He was the man. When gently squeezed once, the Elmo doll would giggle. But when the doll was squeezed 3 times in a row, Elmo would practically go into hysterics, and somewhere in his fit of laughter, would say "Hehe! That tickles!" or just, "Tickle, Tickle!"

      Apparently this caught on pretty quick for me. One day I walked up to my Mommy and tried to imitate the doll, my first words being, "TICKA TICKA!!" 

      I got the idea to write about this experience from this website: http://creativewritingprompts.com/# . There are some really great ideas for writing and I was particularly inspired to post about this one. 

      Verbal communication, in my opinion, is very important. While I believe that there is tremendous power in writing, as it can reach out to millions of people, I personally prefer an in-depth, intellectually stimulating conversation with just one or two individuals. The strength of words can be a genuinely astonishing opportunity for humans to connect. I know that not just as a class, or a town, or a state, or a nation, but on a global level, words can replace the violence we see and hear about every day. 

      Sorry about the extreme tangent guys, but my point is, I think it is vital to acknowledge the salience of words as a mode of communication. Thanks to Elmo, I commenced in the art of speaking. And I haven't really shut up since :)