{"id":4348,"date":"2025-01-16T08:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T13:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4348"},"modified":"2025-01-16T08:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T13:57:09","slug":"chatty-cathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/16\/chatty-cathy\/","title":{"rendered":"Chatty Cathy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

For generations of toymakers, the Holy Grail was a doll which could talk.

Thomas Edison gave it his best shot. During the late 1800s he planted actual phonograph records inside dolls. But the technology proved to be unreliable, and communication was limited to the single word \u201cMama.\u201d Besides, an Edison talking doll retailed for an astonishing $10 \u2013 something like $300 in today\u2019s economy.

The breakthrough came in 1960 from Mattel\u2019s creative husband-wife team of Ruth and Elliot Handler, whom the year before had introduced the world to a doll named Barbie.

The Handlers\u2019 talking doll was named Chatty Cathy. She \u201cspoke\u201d whenever a child pulled her \u201cchatty ring,\u201d which was attached to a string leading to a metal coil in her back, which activated a hidden voice unit. \u00a0

The original version of Cathy would randomly speak one of 11 phrases. They included \u201cTell me a story,\u201d \u201cPlease take me with you,\u201d and, of course, \u201cI love you.\u201d Three years later, an upgraded version of the doll featured seven more, including \u201cMay I have a cookie?\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s play school,\u201d for a grand total of 18 recorded phrases.

Cathy\u2019s chatter was provided by cartoon voice actress June Foray, best known as the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel in Rocky & Bullwinkle<\/em>, as well as Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas<\/em>. Interestingly, when Mattel reintroduced the doll in 1970, the voice was that of Maureen McCormick, who achieved celebrity as Marcia Brady in The Brady Bunch<\/em>.

Mattel quickly introduced a number of other talking dolls, including Chatty Baby and Tiny Chatty Brother.

Fortunately, they never released Chatty Pastor, a doll whose sermons droned on and on and made everyone late for Sunday brunch, and who said things like, \u201cThat reminds me of another story,\u201d and \u201cI think you\u2019ll be blessed if we look more closely at this Greek verb.\u201d\u00a0

Why was Chatty Cathy such a hit?

As Christopher Byrne points out in his book Toy Time<\/em>, she was the first talking doll that actually worked and which the average family could afford.

Byrne notes, \u201cShe wasn\u2019t a baby who had to be taken care of; she was a playmate who shared all the dreams and adventures that little girls imagined. It was the talking that created her special magic. When Mom, a sister, or a best friend wasn\u2019t around to play house or say \u2018I love you\u2019\u2026Cathy was.\u201d

What about the power of speech in the realm of religion? Can we ever hope to receive a word from God?

Adherents of Hinduism, Buddhism, and other Eastern faiths have no expectation of hearing a divine Voice, since they imagine divinity to be impersonal.

New Age devotees turn inward. Since \u201cthe divine\u201d dwells within us, the only words we need to hear are the ones that come from our own mouths.

Neo-pagans listen for the \u201cvoices\u201d of the natural order, or the spirits associated with them. Scientific materialists simply laugh. Electrons, quarks, and neutrinos \u2013 components of the meaningless, purposeless mass of cosmic particles \u2013 have nothing to say.

Things are different for devotees of the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The God who created and rules the universe is actually there<\/em>. God thinks, cares, plans, and acts. \u00a0

Above all, God speaks<\/em>. God doesn\u2019t leave us in the dark concerning what\u2019s on his heart. That\u2019s clear from the Old Testament prophets:

\u201cAs the rain\u00a0and the snow\u00a0come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed\u00a0for the sower and bread for the eater,\u00a0so is my word\u00a0that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose\u00a0for which I sent it\u201d<\/em> (Isaiah 55:10-11).

Consider the opening line of the New Testament book of Hebrews:

\u201cLong ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world\u201d<\/em> (Hebrews 1:1-2).\u00a0 According to the Gospel of John, Jesus doesn\u2019t just bring God\u2019s Word. He himself is <\/u><\/em>the Word (John 1:1, 14).

Scripture affirms that God has spoken in the past. And God\u2019s people have every reason to expect that he is speaking still.

But that doesn\u2019t mean that God is a divine version of Chatty Cathy.

It\u2019s all too easy to assemble a private collection of phrases that we love to hear from God \u2013 perhaps 18 of our favorite promises and assurances. Isn\u2019t it appropriate to want to hear from the King of the Cosmos, again and again, those three incredible words, \u201cI love you\u201d?\u00a0 Of course.

But being God\u2019s person does not come down to tugging on a divine chatty ring and receiving only<\/u><\/em> the words and phrases we find easy to digest.

He has so much more to say \u2013 if only we have ears to hear.

God the Son calls us to bless people who insult us to our face. To visit prisoners whom others would just as soon forget. To stop worrying about anything at all. To choose God instead of money as the ultimate security. To pursue servanthood as the pathway to greatness.

The God Who Speaks is not only the greatest gift we can imagine, but the One who will challenge us to live a fundamentally different kind of life.

And the best thing of all?

He\u2019s also the friend and companion we will never outgrow.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here For generations of toymakers, the Holy Grail was a doll which could talk. Thomas Edison gave it his best shot. During the late 1800s he planted actual phonograph records inside dolls. But the technology proved to be unreliable, and communication was limited to the single word \u201cMama.\u201d Besides, an Edison talking… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[854],"class_list":["post-4348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gods-word-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4350,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348\/revisions\/4350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}