My best friends growing up were named Ted and Teddy. Ted was small and brown, with a little felt tongue he couldn’t keep in his mouth for some reason. Teddy was a little larger, grey and white, with a big black nose. They went nearly everywhere with me, were locked in the office filing cabinet at preschool, since, the teachers believed, they were keeping me from associating with the other children. Why they needed to stay there during nap is anyone’s guess, but stay there they did. I remember crying myself to sleep in the nap room on my green vinyl mat.

Ted and Teddy played under trees and at parks with me. They went on an epic adventure with my grandfather in his truck at one point – tragic for little me. We even put up missing signs around the neighborhood with their picture attached. But there they were found, right before Grandpa sold that truck, inside the compartment under his bed. Ted himself was lost, and then “found” 35 years later, but that is a story for another time. Teddy stayed with me through boarding school, college, countless choir trips- he was my well-known sidekick. He still is, really.

Ted was an Edentoys bear, made in a factory in Haiti in the early 1970s. Teddy was a Gund koala, made in the mid 70s. I got Ted before I knew what was going on, Teddy when I was 5. Into both, I poured all the childhood dreams and frustrations, tragedies and joy. It’s all still there, contained in their plush and stuffing. If I’m having a bad day, I pick up one or the other, give them a snuggle, my breathing slows, my mood lifts.

Today, they spend most of their time on a shelf by my bed, except for occasional photo shoots that they do for the page I manage for them on instagram. A few years ago, I was needing a safe, quiet, stress-free creative outlet and the bears gave that to me, saved me a bit- again.

And so, for me, when I see pictures of thousands of stuffed animals thrown on ice after a hockey game, or read a statistic about how many are tossed in the landfill every year (it’s a lot), it isn’t that I don’t know that they aren’t real, it’s two things. The first? These aren’t your grandparent’s stuffed animals. They won’t biodegrade when you Marie Kondo your house for the 4th time since the pandemic. They are plastic- soft, fluffy plastic – but still plastic. The second is this- do we find nothing even a tiny bit special or worth preserving? Well?

I talk to ladies at the church who make prayer shawls- also plastic- and they pray while they make them in order to infuse the fabric with those prayers for the recipients. A stuffed animal has to have that same ability if a blanket does. Stuffed animals also have some therapeutic benefits for both children and adults in a variety of areas. Here is an article outlining some of the positives of stuffed animal friendship.

There is, I believe, a better way than to overpurchase, toss, repeat. How about making a good choice in the first place and keeping that bear or whatever for the duration? You don’t need 35. One or two will do just fine. The materials we have and are using are out in the world now, so why not find and renew stuffed animals in need of homes, rather than buying new, and why not stop throwing them in the landfill? Come on now, y’all saw Toy Story III, you know what to do.

And as for toy manufacturers, I know you think you’ve finally nailed plush, and well done, I guess, but lets have a think about materials and be better. Do better.

I rescue teddy bears. This is something I’ve worked on over the last few years here and there. I’ve run into them in thrift stores, people have mailed them to me- sometimes they don’t even want them back, they just want someone to fix something they found important in their early life. Going back in this blog a few years, you’ll find an entry or two on transformations. This is my gift both to the earth and to these little creatures who, you know, sometimes I look them in the eye and I can see the child they once belonged to. Sometimes they plead with me to fix them up and bring them back to the world. It’s an honor.

At the shop, we have a small and growing selection of renewed bears, and others looking for new homes. In all cases they have been washed and sterilized. In some cases, they have required extensive repair. Most will have a sweater or scarf or hat and a letter of introduction that tells you what I know about their background (no, really) if I can find anything at all. They are looking forward to meeting you.