Becoming real: 2013-2014 Vessel personality award (attribution “The Velveteen Rabbit”)

As the Skin Horse explained to the Velveteen Rabbit, “Real isn’t how you are made.  It’s a thing that happens to you.  When a child loves you for a long, long time . . . you become Real.”  As we observe  in our Vessel personalities tab, some objects on Elizabeth Jean come to life over time.  How this happens has been a bit of a mystery to us, but we think the Skin Horse is on to something.

This year the coveted Vessel Personality Award goes to Perkins, our faithful British Perkins 4108 diesel engine.  Winds have been light and our reliance on Perkins has been correspondingly heavy.  He has performed as a true champion logging 690 engine hours since we left Seattle.  We  provide Perkins regular attestations of our love (in addition to the water and oil we feed him).  So by virtue of his efforts on Elizabeth Jean‘s behalf and our love, Perkins has become a Vessel Personality (with all the rights and privileges that pertain thereto).

Perkins, in all his glory.