Apologies for the late post – family crisis (ah, the holidays)…

Muppets

I would be a failure in chronicling holiday memories without mentioning Jim Henson’s Muppets. The holiday will always be linked, for me, to Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas and the John Denver/Muppets holiday album. But Henson and his creations had a far more powerful effect on me, in fact pacing my whole life, from Sesame Street to Farscape.

I was recently reminded of this fact when I visited the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, and their Jim Henson exhibit there. The exhibit take visitors on a tour from Henson’s earliest work (including artwork he did while still at college) through to the more familiar creations of The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and The Dark Crystal.

I don’t think it’s hyperbole to credit Jim Henson as a visionary. I don’t know if you could make puppets into a worldwide sensation otherwise. But I think it was his heart, as well as his creativity, that made him truly extraordinary. He worked with foam and felt and yet found a way to touch people, to have us relate to objects that otherwise would be inanimate.

Henson’s death was the first time I can remember being affected deeply by a stranger’s death. Because he didn’t feel like a stranger and because his creations had always been with me. The world lost someone great when he died.

Still, I’m glad to see his legacy still going strong. The same day I visited the Henson exhibition, I also visited FAO Schwartz with a friend. There they have this service where you can construct your own Muppet. It’s pricey, and the options are limited, but it was amazing to see all the people walking by and their amazement once they saw the stall. People from all over the world, their eyes lighting up at the sight of something they associated with fun and happiness. That’s not a bad legacy to have.

And for the quotes:

 “The most sophisticated people I know – inside they are all children.” – Jim Henson

“When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for having been there.” – Jim Henson

“Life’s like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending.” –  Jim Henson

“As children, we all live in a world of imagination, of fantasy, and for some of us that world of make-believe continues into adulthood.” – Jim Henson