Only what you take with you

Luke: there’s something not right here. I feel cold. Death.
Yoda: that place is strong with the dark side of the force. A domain of evil it is, and you must go.
Luke: what’s in there?
Yoda: only what you take with you.
Luke: …
Yoda: your weapons, you will not need them.
Luke paused, looked at Yoda, buckled up his weapon belt and entered the dark tangled jungle. Yoda’s emotive ears drooped in resignation.


We went to the Marrickville market this morning. My nearly 5 year old was wearing a quite wonderful costume he was recently gifted. It’s a full body Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle outfit - Leonardo if you’re wondering. It has green arms and legs, a slightly ridged turtle chest, a half shell, belt, blue eye mask and a plastic sword. Strangely it also came to us with a plastic Harry Potter wand. Our boy entered the market playground today with his weapons tucked into the brown fabric ninja belt.
Children flapped around the area while their parents ate Turkish gozleme and drank chai tea. The turtle costume drew attention and soon Pan and two boys were talking and playing. The game quickly and inevitably turned to pointing, chopping and combative spell casting. Nobody got hurt or too upset, there were however some moments of snatching, crossed armed walk offs and a few parental interventions required. It all went on for 30 or 40 minutes and was probably a net positive for the children involved. The whole time I was wondering what kind of game would have been happening had Pan arrived with a 5 balloons or a tent or a dolphin costume?


I’m heading back into a classroom for the first time in 4 months this week. I wonder what I’ll take with me?