Ice Hockey Island

So, we're unexpectedly continuing our series "Hooked on a Feeling."  This is due to the fire marshal nonsense, but at the same time, it's not so bad.  For one, the characters have been able to stick around, all five of them.  And with this weekend, they'll be here to act out this skit below.  It's a simple one, but it works, and of course gets the point across...


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NARRATOR:  “Inside each of us are emotions – they are feelings we have like Anger, Sadness, Joy, Fear, and Disgust.  Each of these are emotions that play out…”

FEAR runs out STAGE RIGHT screaming, holding a hockey stick, with ANGER running out just behind, also with a hockey stick and a puck.

NARRATOR:  “Uh… what are you doing?”

ANGER:  “Playing out.  Just like you said!”

ANGER drops puck at CENTER STAGE, ready to make a shot against FEAR, who gets into a defensive position, and screams.

NARRATOR: “Wait, wait, wait!  Okay, forgive me for this obvious question here.  But what are you doing?”

ANGER:  (dramatically) “Just reliving one of Penny’s memories.  Ice hockey game.  Last season.  Two minutes left.  Will she or will she not make the shot?”

ANGER once again gets ready to make shot, and FEAR screams once again, and JOY enters STAGE RIGHT quickly.

JOY:  “Anger!  What are you doing? 

FEAR:  “He’s going to kill me!”

ANGER:  “Nonsense!  You’re just playing the part of the goalie, and here I go with the game winning shot!”

ANGER once more pretends to get ready to make shot, and FEAR gets into defensive position and screams.  DISGUST and SADNESS enter STAGE RIGHT quickly.

DISGUST:  “What is going on?”

ANGER:  “For the last time, I’m making a game-winning shot!”

DISGUST:  “Oh, okay.  Go on, this should be good!”

ANGER is about to do as instructed, but is interrupted by DISGUST

DISGUST:  “No, wait!”

ANGER:  “What?”

FEAR:  (calmer) “Thank you, Disgust.”

DISGUST:  “You might hit the memory spheres behind him.  Try shooting at a different angle.”

ANGER smiles, and readjusts as FEAR panics.

FEAR:  “What?  No!”

JOY:  “Okay, okay.  Settle down.  She was joking, right?”

DISGUST:  “Uh…”

JOY:  “Sure she was joking!  So calm down, Fear.”

ANGER:  “It’s just that I love it when she plays ice hockey!”

CUE SLIDE:  “ICE HOCKEY ISLAND”

SADNESS:  “Ice Hockey Island is fun.  It kind of makes me not as sad.  Unless Penny gets hurt.”

JOY grabs a MEMORY SPHERE from STAGE RIGHT, where rest of CAST slowly joins her over course of conversation. 

JOY:  “That’s what all the padding is for, Sadness.  Come on, don’t you remember how great this one memory was?  Game winning shot!”

ANGER:  “Yes!  She slammed that one right past the goalie for the score!”

FEAR:  “She was the safest player that day!”

DISGUST:  “And she was the most popular player on the team that day!”

CAST smiles, as FEAR picks up another MEMORY SPHERE.

FEAR: “But oh no!”

CAST:  “What?”

FEAR:  “Remember this one?  Getting stuck in that scary place?”

JOY:  (rolling eyes) “That was just the Penalty Box, Fear.”

SADNESS: “That wasn’t a fun memory.”

ANGER:  “Yep!  The Bad News Train just pulled in the station.  Toot-toot!”

DISGUST: “Penny got stuck in the Penalty box and she didn’t even do anything wrong!”

JOY points at MEMORY SPHERE, showing something to DISGUST

JOY:  “Now Disgust, you remember that Penny tripped that other player.”

ANGER:  (smiling, rubbing hands together) “It was an accident!”

JOY:  “Was it?”

SADNESS: “Oh, we were in such trouble there.  We had to stay in that penalty box for two whole minutes.  And everyone was looking at us.”

DISGUST:  “And it smelled like foot.”

CAST:  “Yuck!”

CAST begins to walk over to CENTER STAGE, still holding Memory Spheres.

SADNESS:  “Don’t you just wish we could throw away the bad memories, and forget them forever?”

FEAR:  “You mean throw them in the Memory Dump?”

SADNESS:  “We were wrong, and deserved to be punished.  I don’t think we can ever forget doing something like that.”

JOY:  “Yes, but cheer up, Sadness!”

SADNESS:  “Why?”

JOY:  “I think God will forget all our sins.”

ANGER:  “Where did you read that?”

JOY:  “It doesn’t matter.  I read it and its great.”

SADNESS goes to get MANUAL

FEAR:  “But what if God remembers everything we do?  We’ll have to sit in a penalty box for a million years or more!”

DISGUST: “And it will smell like foot!”

CAST shudders audibly, except SADNESS, who has is holding the manual and reading from it.

SADNESS:  “No.”

CAST looks at SADNESS, who begins to read.

CUE SLIDE:  “ISAIAH 43:25”

SADNESS:  “It says here, ‘I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.”

CUE SLIDE:  HOOKED ON A FEELING

JOY:  “See?  I told you!  It’s just like God takes those sins and tosses them over into that big Memory Dump where they disappear forever.”

FEAR:  “So, are you saying we won’t have to go to a big, ginormous penalty box?”

SADNESS:  “Yeah.  God will forgive us if we ask Him, and repent.”

FEAR:  “So can we toss this memory away?”

JOY:  “Nope.  Don’t need to!  Because God will use them all to make something super awesome.”

FEAR:  “But I don’t like looking at this one!”

DISGUST and JOY are putting MEMORY SPHERES BACK

DISGUST:  “Then don’t. Just remember that all these work together for those who love God.”

JOY is looking at DISGUST, perplexed.

JOY:  “Did you just say what I thought you did?”

DISGUST:  “What?  I was paying attention at church too, you know!”

SADNESS:  “That’s right, Disgust.  It all works together for the good.”

PAUSE to let bottom line sink in.

ANGER:  “Welp, that just leaves one thing left to do.”

SADNESS:  “What’s that?”

ANGER hoists his hockey stick once again, and FEAR realizes the implication.

ANGER:  “Time to relive that memory, Fear.  You be the goalie!  Time for the face-off!”

FEAR: “No!  I don’t want my face off!”

FEAR screams and runs around STAGE, with ANGER chasing him, as remaining CAST laughs, rolls eyes, or does a face palm.  Or whatever, okay?  FEAR runs off STAGE RIGHT, with ANGER in pursuit.

NARRATOR:  “KidPak, we all have some bad memories of things we’ve done wrong – and we all deserve to be in the penalty box.  But the good news is that God will forget all our sins if we ask forgiveness and repent!  So start making good memories, starting today – and you can score big!”

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Of course, there was ice hockey in the movie "Inside Out," which inspired us to go see an ice hockey game.  And this in turn inspired the skit that will take place this weekend.  One challenge though:  where to find a hockey stick?  You can't see them around here, even in the sports stores.  Mainly because… there's no ice.  Or hockey.  One sports store salesperson actually sort of laughed at me for thinking there might be one or two hockey sticks.  I mean, not even street hockey?  Or field hockey?

Fortunately, Daddy knows a few people with ice hockey sticks, so it all worked out.  We'll be good to go.

As for today, it was a simple day. Madison was busy at school, and Mommy was busy at home, and Daddy was busy at work setting up for various events, and going to a lot of meetings.  We've been doing online meetings with the folks at our OC campus out in California.  Perhaps some day we'll go out there to meet in person some time soon.

Madison was doing her piano practice when Daddy got home, and it was a little later.  We didn't have as much time together.  But we did spend some time reading together, and playing a little Disney Infinity.  Daddy was incredibly pleased when we worked together to earn a new hat for our sidekick character.  The hat?  DOR-15, otherwise known as "Doris."

Yes!  I love how random this game can be.