Like a Child

Kids are incredible.  Since I've been back from New York, I've spent a couple weeks with my sister and brother and law, and with two very close friends of mine. Both couples have a kid just over 2 years old. The common problems apply of course; a strict schedule, a lack of free time, disturbances, messy meal times and "don't touch that"s. I can tell just by looking at them that the parents are left pretty exhausted. Yeah, a lot of it is due to the fact that the kids need constant supervision just for safety's sake. The other half is probably for the house's safety's sake. Lots of objects end up being placed on higher, out-of-reach shelves, lest they end up being placed in strange locations and in various broken pieces. I've come to appreciate how tiring this constant vigilance is. But at the same time, I'm in a unique position where I get to play observer and appreciate the pure mayhem a child brings with it everywhere.

What I'm getting at is... Due to the constant and relentless nature of these disturbances, the parents have become grizzled veterans, regarding the various range of 3-foot-shenanigans without much interest. But I find it fascinating. It's incredible to watch a tiny, new mind explore the world around it by pushing and pulling and prodding everything. It's almost as if you'd be dropped into a completely dark and unfamiliar room, where the only way you can comprehend your surroundings is to experiment and interact with every item you stumble across. These kids are trying to figure out what the world is made of and how it works. And they can't learn it from Wikipedia. Only first-hand knowledge will do. And when working with a very limited knowledge base, the results are fascinating.

Writing with forks. Plugging a USB cord into a speaker. Hats as seats. The list goes on and on and on.

There are two parts that I find amazing to the whole process. First is the sheer range of ways an object can be interacted with. A toddler can get into trouble with any, any given item. I guarantee it. When we look at a cup, all we can see is a container to drink from. The only variable we can comprehend are the different liquids we can drink from it, and even those are usually just limited to what we have in the fridge. But when was the last time we thought about filling it with screws and hurling it across the livingroom? As a rational, self-aware human being, we probably don't have any remote need to get the results from such an experiment. But do we always have that insatiable curiosity and willingness to... try? It makes me wonder what possibilities we're missing out on because so much of how we see the world is through assumptions.

The second part of why this sticks out to me is how the kids react to the whole process. Often it's a mix of total concentration and boundless joy. All from something simple. Sometimes it really sucks that we have to grow up, and we crave more complex forms on entertainment. We need thousand-dollar computers to run games made by teams of programmers and designers just to kill an afternoon. But give a child a set of measuring cups, and they'll be content for an entire afternoon. They'll stack them, bang them, throw them. And they won't just be content to do so, they'll be thrilled. I admire that appreciation and fascination with the small things. I think the older we get, the more we take for granted.



I had an incredible professor at the School of Visual Arts called Richard Wilde. He was even the chair of the design program. In the last class of his foundation and experimentation course, one of the final points he stressed to us was to try and see and perceive the world as if through the eyes of a child. It's only been over the last month that I've been able to really appreciate that outlook. Because to kids, I think, the world is full of nothing but possibilities, with little indication of what should happen. Instead, the world is this crazy amazing place where everything is crazy and anything is possible.

Kids, man. They got things figured out. More than they know.

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This week I took my friend and her kid to a dealership so that they could pick up their car from being serviced. It was a Toyota dealership, no less, and on the showroom floor they had a 2014 FR-S. While waiting, I got in and sat for a few minutes. I ran my fingers over the stitching in the steering wheel, fiddled with the cup holders, and tested out the action on the shifter. A bit heavier than I'd like, but still very satisfying. The car felt low and light and tight. It felt like a good fit.

Gah. I'm so close, yet so far, you know? I'm done school and now I just need a job. It might take me a year before I can afford a car, but when I get those keys... I'll be able to check off a major goal that's been a solid 6-7 years in the making. I can't wait. But I have to. I just hope it won't be much longer, is all.
-Cril

Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday.
Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long.
I am the egg man, they are the egg men.
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.

Jim Carrey - I Am the Walrus