Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Looking Forward (2)

Part two:

7 comments:

Thomas Herpich said...

Very nice. I'd forgotten about this one.

Reminds me of having been asked, years ago, what my happiest memory is, and everything I could think of involved being high.

Anonymous said...

Adults are delusional if they think they are on a quest for a life free of fear and loneliness. If they really were, they'd become a lot more rational not be doing everything they can to dig up youthful emotions.

Young people are not enabled by adults to experience wonder. That happens by itself. Adults actually train kids to put it aside and become boring "responsible" adults like them. Wonder and amazement are not hand-me-downs from the previous generation they are more like our natural birthrights.

Realizations about the nature of reality are more amazing than thunderstorms. If someone can't get past the desire to relive such events as if it was the first time then their mind has stopped growing.

Unknown said...

I disagree with Angel's examination of this comic. The enabling that I see, and I don't know if it's what you intended when you wrote this Pete, is the biological act of producing children. We create them and they naturally experience the joy and wonder of youth, and parents, if they allow themselves to, share in that joy and amazement. Congratulations on your soon-to-be-born...

Anonymous said...

If Isaac's assessment is right then perhaps this comic should be submitted to Good Housekeeping magazine....

Peter Herpich said...

The last thing I wanted this blog to be was a source of arguments with people I don't know, but "Good Housekeeping"? Come on man, if someone can't get past the desire to be snide in a blog comment, perhaps his mind has stopped growing.

Seriously, what I meant to convey is that children can experience wonder when their parents both protect and sustain them, as well as expose them to unfamiliar, stimulating experiences.

Impending fatherhood has led me to take less for granted that my parents brought home watermelon that day, or brought us all out on the porch that evening, or even that I had siblings or that we had a house and clothes and a dog. The list of things my parents did and gave and bought and sacrificed to allow me that experience could go on and on.

Maybe Angel thinks I'd have experienced as much wonder that evening under any circumstances, such as my parents having let me fend totally for myself from infancy. Or maybe I just wasn't clear. Or maybe he was more interested in making his own pseudo-philosophical point than engaging with the work he was commenting on.

But now I'm being snide...

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with arguing with people you don't know? The argument could be a good one whether it's with a perfect stranger or a good friend you've known for years.

Would you mind explaining how what I said is not philosophical?

Anyway, kids with careless parents can experience things like wonder and astonishment just as much if not more than kids with caring parents. It's not something that we have any kind of control over. There are too many factors in the chaos of reality for a parent to ever be certain about how their kids are going to turn out. Feeling that you can have this certainty is the source of a lot confusion in family life and beyond.

The fact that you're having a baby soon completely vanished from consciousness as I read this comic. But that shouldn't be informing my reaction to it anyway. That would taint my thoughts with personal sentiments and make a mockery of all artistic pursuits which is why I responded to isaac's comment like that.

Dianna said...

I am a teacher of seven year olds...and I can say for certain that it works...the world through their eyes is beautiful. As it was years ago.