During this weekend’s Mother’s Day visit, my nephew, Mac, becomes one of the first people ever to see sample cards from The Idea Deck, the brainstorming Tarot I’m designing with artist Eric Hotz. He spends extra time with a card titled “Decision.”
The illustration features a man whose legs are trapped beneath a fallen tree. Like the other cards in the deck, this card is meant to prompt a great deal of discussion and story creation. Is the wolf in the background a predator … or protector? Can the man move the tree by himself? Both a cell phone and a saw lie within reach — which tool will the man choose … and why?
In working with the card myself, I’ve always imagined the man as having two choices: calling for help or using the saw to reduce the tree to more manageable pieces.
Mac, eleven years old, sees it differently. “Oh, well,” he says. “I’m trapped under a tree.”
I nod. “What are your options?”
Mac considers this. “I could use that phone to call for help … but it’d be a lot faster just to take the saw and hack my own legs off.”
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