November 27, 2024 They call them “altered moments.” I first saw them on social media. I saw a few before I figured out what they were. Altered moments start out as “Precious Moments” figurines, small porcelain depictions of children with signature tear-shaped eyes. Then, artists take the figurines and, as the name suggests, alter them. Usually inspired by characters from film, television or literature, artists add clay, cut off pieces, repaint and turn the figurines into entirely new figurines. I’ve seen little porcelain children modified into Harry Potter or Ralphie from “A Christmas Story,” complete with the pink bunny-eared suit. Artists share their works in online communities and sell them. The altered moments boggle my mind sometimes. When I look at a Precious Moments figurine, I see what it is – a cute, fragile collectible. I don’t look at a small porcelain figure of a girl in a bonnet with a puppy and think, “gee, that would make a great Cruella De Vil.” My brain doesn’t work like that. Scrolling through a social media group devoted to the hobby, seeing the amazing creativity and the humor in some of the pieces, I noticed how much joy I was taking from this hobby I didn’t even know existed a few weeks ago. It’s such a blessing that God made people with brains who work like that – brains that work differently from mine. People seem to give differences a lot of power these days. A lot of people seem eager to label anyone who acts differently, believes differently, votes differently – does anything differently from them at all – as bad. I do it sometimes, too. I feel like God is calling me to work on that. He’s calling me to look for where the differences are blessings. That would alter a lot of moments. We, the staff and contributors to the North Country Catholic, wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. We thank God for you, this family of faith we have here in our diocese. |
|||||
|
|||||||||
