A Search for Inspiration, or Who is Stamp Kid?

Lately I’ve been looking for inspiration for what to write. Unlike onion grass or splinters, inspiration is difficult to stumble upon. Normally, I’m not a person who can walk down the street and watch the light excusing itself through the leaves and suddenly realize a haiku, though that has happened.

Sunlight excuses 

Itself through leaves on the trees

Bird pooped nice shot. 

I search for inspiration. Google is a good place to start. Tonight I typed 
“inspiration” into a Google search, because when you’re looking to be inspired it’s best to start with something predictable. The first page of found items all had common theme of children, such as Kidspiration and a software company that sold some shoddy looking programs designed to inspire learning. I click on inspirational quotes by “Inspiration Peak”. Sage advice from historical luminaries can be very inspiring.

The quotes page doesn’t look that great. More like the kind of  quote page designed  solely to lure you in with promises of child-like inspiration. Then sell you E-cards. But there is a poem by Shel Silverstein.

It reminds me of when I would sit in my elementary school’s library and the silver haired librarian with a chest like two fishbowls in a red sweater read us Shel Silverstein stories, thinking that Shel was a girl’s name; it would not be until later that I would consider “The Giving Tree”  as the best children’s story ever told, “Go Dog Go” a close second. 

In short order, I am drawn urgently to another link below the poem. 

A heart-touching story about a puppy who was born “a little different?” Tell me, how can I keep from clicking?

The story concerns a puppy that is born with a cleft lip. The owner takes care of him because the mother dog rejects it. After six weeks all the other puppies are adopted, except the poor cleft lipped puppy. That is, until one day a little boy comes to see the puppy, and the boy has a cleft lip, too!

“He’s just like me!” he said.

The boy insists on paying $2 for the free puppy.

The story delivers on its promise with a heart-touching ending:

“The image of the little boy and his matching pup stays with me still. I think it must be a wonderful feeling for any young person to look at themselves in the mirror and see nothing, except the pretty one.”

“The Pretty One,” is inspirational, but not the kind of inspiration I desperately need. And I’m really desperate. 

I begin to click wildly. Spray and pray, like we used to say in Counter Strike -- when you’re backed into a corner all you can do is  _________ and _________. You understand. 

My wild clicking leads me to the “We Deliver” page. Delivered inspiration sounds intriguing. But the intrigue drains when I discover that I can only receive their daily email with a “a beautiful and thought-provoking quote” inside on Monday through Friday. Saturday and Sunday are when I need inspiration the most. 

Most of the page turns out to be nothing but a newsletter scam, but there is this image in the upper right hand corner. 

I might actually call that image inspiring, if only for the curiosity it inspires. Who is Stamp Kid? From the image, he's a kid who wants me to write him a letter, but the website forgot to list his address. 

Apparently this is what the post became about : Children's stories.  From a bird poop haiku to children's stories. Go figure. 

So I’ll pose a creative question to the Gentlemen. Who is Stamp Kid?  Or, if on the spot story telling isn’t your bag,  what children’s story do you love (TV shows count)?