by Diane Macbeth

Can you guess what the picture is?  Take a good look and then a real good guess! Puzzled?  Don’t be.  It’s one of the greatest pieces of art work since Marvin the Martian appeared in “Duck Dodgers and the 24th and a Half Century”!  It’s a masterpiece!  A true work of art! And hopefully at the next ‘potluck’ you will get to meet the creators. “It was a dark and stormy night”. . . . Actually no it wasn’t!   It was a Wednesday morning in April and the sun was shining brightly when one young TimeBanker answered a request from another TimeBanker,  and met a prospective TimeBanker. The result was some truly awesome creativity!
  The prospective TimeBanker was my son, Robbie.  The other TimeBanker was Eli.  When I first joined TimeBank Media (less than a month ago)  and saw some of the posts I noticed  nine-year old boy offering his expertise in Legos. I couldn’t resist! It has been quite some time since Lego creativity had radiated through our old farmhouse. It was time for those little ‘puzzle pillars of play’ to come to life around here again!
This masterpiece started out in a plastic shopping bag. The pieces were larger than I had expected – there weren’t many in the bag.  But that didn’t matter. Once Eli and Robbie dumped it all out the creative juices flowed.  I spent time talking with Eli’s mom about timebanking (and other stuff that homeschool moms talk about) while those two boys just had the ‘time’ of their lives. One boy giving of his time to the other and both boys reaping the benefits. A lifelong friendship was born. The clatter of those little plastic pieces and the quiet hum of conversation was testimony to the fact that timebanking is here to stay. When you come to the meeting on April 26th,  check in with Robbie and Eli and ask them how this first creation has led to a regular session of “Lego life” for both of them.

Eli and Robbie co-create

Thanks, Eli for your post.  Thanks, Marie for great ideas and conversation.  Thanks, TimeBankMedia for your outreach to the greater community. Without a doubt your efforts will pay off time and time again!