Happy March, CDHMrs!

The snow is giving way to sunlight here in the winter-weary Eastern United States. And even though I love winter, right now even I have had enough and the sun is my hero. Another hero of mine is Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss®, creator of Green Eggs and Ham, the Grinch, Horton and Sneeches.

Dr. Seuss® was born in March, and shone a bright ray of light on the world with his writing career.

Now I'm not much for poetry, and I have to admit his rhyming words didn't make his books my favorites. But his imagery and the doorways it flung open wide in my imagination did.

There were colorful, fanciful fish who smiled and frowned just like people, there was a cat who wore a comically tall red and white top hat, there was a large bear covered in rainbow polka dots, there were fantastical machines and fantastical creatures too many to name.

Despite the poetry, Dr. Seuss® had what all great writers have: the ability to take people out of themselves and into another world, a world where anything is possible. A world where tolerance, sharing, caring and justice prevail. A world where rules of fair play and honor endure.

Dr. Seuss® asserted that "nonsense wakes up the imagination," and that "we must juggle the obvious."

It's a sentiment artists everywhere can share. Another trait of his shared by artists everywhere, and especially miniaturists, is the way he viewed - and lived - life.

He quit a study of Gothic literature at Oxford to spend several months traveling Europe and acquired a whole new philosophy on life. His decision, after observing people throughout his journey? Most adults take life much too seriously.

His life would be different, he vowed, he would interact with his world through a child's perspective on life, see it without the repressive social pressure gauge that constricted the adult viewpoint. He would let his imagination run free and he would react and experience life from an honest gut level.

And then he would use this remarkable outlook to touch more lives than even he would have dreamed possible. His causes included fighting religious, racial and social injustices. And his honest, gut-level reactions have spoken to millions - particularly during World War II.

Dr. Seuss® felt that Hitler was a real threat to the world and needed to be stopped. And so his intensely pointed political cartoons were born. Many famous Seussian characters were born in these cartoons, going on to speak to millions of children - and adults - in the pages of his children's books.

The Sneeches, my favorite book, stemmed from a political cartoon against Hitler portraying a typically Seussian character in shackles with a little sign dangling from his nose proclaiming, "I am part Jewish."

In the book, McBean's Star-On Machine gave the plain-bellied Sneeches stars upon thars while another Star-off Machine removed the stars from the original Star-Bellied Sneeches. After all, if everyone had a star then they were no longer exclusive and something must change for them to retain their superiority.

"They never will learn, you can't teach a Sneech," writes Seuss in the book. But in Seuss' world, the Sneeches DID learn how to move past prejudice to accept each other the way they were, with or without stars.

Nothing can be anything, or everything, or something. And everyone makes a difference.

That's what Dr. Seuss® taught me.

Open your eyes and your heart, spread your arms wide and step off into your imagination to see what kind of difference you can make.

Until next month,

Editor