The Puffer Fish Story
By Kevin Cullinan
The pufferfish figure on the award has a lot to do with indomitability
and with humor, but mostly I have come to associate it with Katy’s
support for others, and here’s why.
In middle-school, Katy’s art class was tasked to make masks of the sort
used in primitive societies’ rituals to symbolize those virtues which
such societies value—strength, bravery, martial expertise, that sort of
thing. Katy chose instead to make a spherical helmet in the shape of
an inflated pufferfish, that curious little fish whose only defense
against predators is to inflate itself to three times its normal size,
to make itself appear too large and spikey to be eaten. It was a
perfectly ridiculous choice, but masterfully executed: with the eyes
bugging out, the cheeks stretched absurdly behind pursed lips—who knew
fish had lips?—it looked so desperate and determined that it almost
seemed human. When the class’s artwork was exhibited to the parents,
eyes invariably fell upon the pufferfish, followed by smiles, and
often, out-loud laughter. Its lasting effect, though, was to leave you
with a smile and perhaps a flicker of admiration for that little
survivor.
Katy then found that she could actually draw the pufferfish in such a
way as to capture that ridiculous determination. And she found that
drawing it that way for someone could elicit a smile. So she began to
leave it for people, sometimes but not always friends, whom she thought
needed encouragement, needed a smile and a little support in a dark
moment. Looking back, I think it was a kind of pixie dust she used to
bring support, warmth and kindness to world she knew is often less than
beautiful. So when you think upon the virtues which this award honors,
if you look at that tiny round pufferfish about to burst and you start
to smile just a little at the corners of your mouth, then maybe Katy
has sprinkled a little of that pixie dust on you, too. Pass it on.
