"Children are smarter than adults because, for a little while, they can see things as they are, without the weight of interpretation." <-- this thing, 10000%. This sense of possibility and curiosity -- I keep wondering how we can reclaim this as adults.
Yes!! I think about this a lot. As a cynic I sometimes think that once it's lost, it's lost. But maybe not! Being around a child and their utter sense newness and wonder at everything. I think there's something in learning new things, or at least seeing old things anew, that can get close.
My drawing instructor (he's somewhat infamous at the Ruby, so many of us have taken this class) points this out a lot -- our adult intellect needing to label and process and put everything in its recognizable bucket. It's so pervasive and yet I have to believe it's possible to undo! Jenny Odell also talks about this in How to Do Nothing, where she references Martin Buber's "I and Thou" framework -- how do we approach what's around us not from a transactional I-It relationship, but a complex nuanced I-Thou one, where the objects/animals/things are not "just a crow, just like any other crow", but instead This Specific Crow, which may incidentally share features/traits with other things we call crows, but in and of itself is an individual creature whose depth and mysteries we can cultivate curiosity around.
This Specific Crow! Yes! I think maybe that's the core--the thing has value and we can feel wonder solely because it is that Thing, and not necessarily in how we map it onto our own experiences. I need to finish Odell! I listened to it as an audiobook but the library needed it back before I could finish. I think it's one I need to read on paper!
I do not see you on the blue sky app. Do you need a code?
I'm not, but I'd love one if you have one! Message me on Twitter! (Or X, whatever 🙄)
"Children are smarter than adults because, for a little while, they can see things as they are, without the weight of interpretation." <-- this thing, 10000%. This sense of possibility and curiosity -- I keep wondering how we can reclaim this as adults.
Yes!! I think about this a lot. As a cynic I sometimes think that once it's lost, it's lost. But maybe not! Being around a child and their utter sense newness and wonder at everything. I think there's something in learning new things, or at least seeing old things anew, that can get close.
My drawing instructor (he's somewhat infamous at the Ruby, so many of us have taken this class) points this out a lot -- our adult intellect needing to label and process and put everything in its recognizable bucket. It's so pervasive and yet I have to believe it's possible to undo! Jenny Odell also talks about this in How to Do Nothing, where she references Martin Buber's "I and Thou" framework -- how do we approach what's around us not from a transactional I-It relationship, but a complex nuanced I-Thou one, where the objects/animals/things are not "just a crow, just like any other crow", but instead This Specific Crow, which may incidentally share features/traits with other things we call crows, but in and of itself is an individual creature whose depth and mysteries we can cultivate curiosity around.
This Specific Crow! Yes! I think maybe that's the core--the thing has value and we can feel wonder solely because it is that Thing, and not necessarily in how we map it onto our own experiences. I need to finish Odell! I listened to it as an audiobook but the library needed it back before I could finish. I think it's one I need to read on paper!