The Light-up Globe
One of the first things I did when I moved to St. Paul was buy a light-up globe. I hadn’t really planned it that way; until I saw it, I didn’t even know light-up globes existed. But there it was, sitting on a table at a garage sale on Summit Avenue. I knew I needed something to spice up my apartment, which was as bare as could be. I had moved north from Kansas just the day before, packing everything I could fit into my 1985 Dodge Daytona. What few decorative touches I possessed at the time weren’t able to make the trip. And so, as I prepared to live alone for the first time in my life, and in a large and unknown city to boot, I decided that this light-up globe would be the perfect way for me to start my new life. Ten minutes and fifteen dollars later, that globe helped my near-empty apartment start to feel like a home.
And so it went. During late nights, I would turn the globe on while listening to music. It was blue, mostly, and it made my apartment seem a little warmer as I learned just how cold winter in Minnesota could be. Over time, I learned that light-up globes are fairly common, but I didn’t care. I was glad to have mine, and whenever I used it, it always reminded me of those first days in my new city, and how strange it felt to step out into the world by myself.
As the months rolled by, I went to more garage sales, and eventually real stores that sold new merchandise. New purchases pushed the globe off it’s prominent perch, and into less visible spots. I was still glad to have it, but you know how it is.
Years went by. My wife-to-be and I lived in a variety of apartments, and finally a house. The story for the globe was always the same. My wife Jane, though not outspokenly against the globe, didn’t exactly lobby to make it our dining table centerpiece. And I wasn’t the strongest advocate for the globe, either. The light-up globe languished, barely able to avoid storage or another garage sale, and was rarely lit up at all.
Eventually, we had a child, a son named Linus. The globe found its way into his room, more or less because there was nowhere else to put it. I figured that one day Linus would think this globe was really cool; at a minimum, it could function as a nightlight.
More years passed. Linus, who is now almost three and a half, showed very little interest in the light-up globe. I’ve turned it on a couple of times in the past year, but he can’t be bothered with it. Fast forward to last night. I’m laying with him in bed, helping him get to sleep. He asks me what I think is a question about his robe; I tell him his robe is in the other room, and I’ll go get it. "No", he says. "I want to look at the GLOBE!"
Really? I get it set up, turn it on. We sit on his bed in the dark and look at it, inches from our faces. I show him Minnesota, tell him that’s where we live. "Right there?" he says, pointing. Yep, right there. And this is where your Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Ronnie live, in Kansas. "Right there?" he says. Yep. "And feel these bumps, Linus? These are mountains." And he feels the bumps, runs his hands all over the globe. He notices that there are a lot of mountains in Southeast Asia, and tells me to feel those big mountains. I do. They are big, aren’t they?
He notices that there is some light poking through those mountains, an imperfection in the globe where there is a small hole. He asks me what it is, and I tell him it’s just a hole, and that you can see the light on the inside of the globe coming through. "There’s a light in there?" he asks excitedly. Yes, that’s why it glows. I can see he is impressed that this is a light-up globe.
Then I show him the oceans, where it is an electric blue. "That’s water," I say. "That’s water?" Well, kind of. Then I explain how he flew over water when we all went to Belize when he was a little baby, and I trace that flight pattern out with my finger, and I turn to show him where Belize is…
And he’s moved to another part of the bed to play with another toy, and has forgotten about the light-up globe altogether. Fair enough. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about that globe. It’s not going anywhere.
12:30:58 PM 
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