My First Kaleidoscope

I can't actually remember the exact time in my life when I first got hold of a kaleidoscope. What I do recall is that it came as a gift from one of the doting aunts at about the time when 70's pantsuits was the fad. But I won't ever forget that despite its tongue-twisting name and its outer simplicity, it has kept me mesmerized all these years.

As a child, it was one of the hordes of stuff given me for entertainment, or probably for distraction as well so I won't bother the aunts from their weekend mahjong sesssions, gardening and what-nots. Normal as I was (or I perceived to be), the kaleidoscope got lost sometime as I moved on to other distractions or discoveries. But the name stuck, now part of my vocabulary.

Years later, in college, I had to get a name for a college paper column. Fast enough my vocabulary reservoir came in handy. Thus, Kaleidoscope World began to exist and persist in my memory.

Today, the name isn't exclusive to me and my musings. Thanks to the net, I learned that other people are similarly obsessed with the magic brought forth by those crystalline images, those color and shape distortions of what things are or what they seem to be.

So, I'm back and now taking random peeks at Kaleidoscope Life.