Wonder Cabinet--2

The Wonder Cabinet—

---Is a centuries old tradition in Europe and America;

a fanciful piece of cabinetry or box containing items that spark the imagination.

These could be rare fossils, ancient artifacts, objects from far-away cultures, puzzles, optical illusions, scientific instruments, or machines that inspire and entertain.

Our cabinet has a religious/philosophical/spiritual theme.

What would you put in your Wonder Cabinet?

"The Randomizer"--used to thinks

Every Wonder Cabinet should have one. It's a irresistible way to enjoy a bit of random probability. Every kid wants to give it a whirl.

Okay, it's just a hand cranked card shuffler with a foam core sign on it.

Here's the great part: You can buy blank Bicycle playing cards from a magician's trick shop, and write whatever you want on them. (you can also try half size index cards but they don't slide very well)

We've used ours for lots of stuff. One ongoing project is a collection of "used-to-thinks." Like:

"I used to think that all dogs were boys, and all cats were girls"

or

"I used to think that the odd numbers were just the weird looking ones"

You may find that kids have some interesting notions about God and Afterlife and Wisdom, though many of our used to thinks are of the factual "needing a little more info" sort.

Almost everyone in the Big Room seems to have experienced that ah-ha moment of changing a belief in an instant based on new info that turns an old assumption upside down.

Some of our used to thinks are ones we gradually form new opinions about.

It's all a part of Growing and Learning, right?

More on used to thinks..?

check out "I used to believe" ...for thousands of posts on topics like animals, religion, food...though not all of these are stuff I'd use in the Big Room.

Also, this brilliant episode of This American Life

treasure from trash

If you look closely, you may see that our treasure chest is made from old cardboard, newspapers, pop bottle caps, an orange juice can top...and a generous amount of glue and glitter.



The things outside the treasure chest are true treasures, treasures in disguise, that we always want to reduce-reuse-recycle.

A Glass jar has a postcard attached that says it is a treasure from the beach. Yes indeed! glass is made from the ordinary kind of sand we sit on and walk on and dig in and make sandcastles out of at the beach.

Our comics from the Sunday newspaper are printed on paper...A treasure from the forest, since we know that paper is made from the trunks of trees.

Our aluminum pop can's post card says it is a treasure from the mountains. Aluminum comes from a mineral called bauxite...which is mined from mountains.

And finally, our plastic bottle says it's a treasure from the dinosaurs. How's that? Well plastic is made from oil, which comes from the ground, which has been compressed by the earth since the time of dinosaurs!

Next time you have to take out the recycling, you may want to remember that your trash is really treasure in disguise.