Momnesia

Stacey's World

This is "Christina's World," a 1948 painting by American artist Andrew Wyeth, currently part of New York's Museum of Modern Art collection.

I first came across this painting when I was 7 years old. My mother had a huge art history book, and I liked to lay on the floor and thumb through the pages. I liked this painting very much, because it reminded me of my favorite books, the "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

My father walked past me in the living room one day and saw what I was doing.

"You know why she's sitting there?" he asked. I shook my head. "Because she got run over by a tractor and is waiting for help."

That is my dad, y'all. Always looking for somewhere to insert a joke, even if he has to fabricate it out of thin air... and, in the process, horrify an impressionable and romantic 7-year-old.