Friday, July 29, 2011

Into the unknown

Can you imagine a world where virtually everything you saw was new?

I'm not talking about a place where everyone has the latest car, the latest cell phone or a world where retro clothes mysteriously vanish. I'm talking about a world you have no idea what anything is, where everything you see is something you not only have never seen before but something you could not even imagine. Like MIT's Media Lab center. But with less pocket protectors.

Every time you open your eyes, you see something you never knew existed. Not only that, every time you touch something you feel something you have never felt before. And almost every time you move, you do something you have never done before.

I don't know if I would be amazed, excited or terrified. Possibly all three all at once.

Taking Reese around town or for a walk around the block is such a joy because something as mundane as a water fountain (the kind everyone used to take free sips from at school or at the park before we decided to buy it in a bottle) is as mystical to her as MIT's "Bar of Soap" would be to me (by the way, I love how the MIT guy says it's a "relatively simple system." Sure, simple if you go to MIT or CalTech buddy!). Reese could have stayed and explored the water fountain for probably 30 minutes if I let her. Maybe even longer.

Every day objects like a fire hydrant or so foreign to her, she has to stop and examine it. What is this huge yellow object? What does it feel like? Why is it here? What do these bolts do? What does it taste like? (Point of clarification: I have never let my daughter actually lick or otherwise taste a fire hydrant. She has, however, licked a "Stop" sign post. Briefly. I stopped her as soon as I saw her do it. I don't think she swallowed too many diseases. We'll keep an eye on her, though, just to make sure.)

I think an adult's trepidation with the unknown is because an adult has felt pain, unwanted surprise and, unfortunately, grief. We know not everything is gentle. We know sometimes objects and creatures scratch, bite, sting, electrocute, maim, dismember, suffocate, and potentially eat other objects (i.e, your hand, leg, face or torso). If we have not personally felt it (especially the eating of our face or torso), we have heard about it or have seen Animal Planet enough to be tentative about new and unknown objects.

A toddler has no such fears. The unknown is not a chance to get hurt, but a chance to learn and experience something new. It is a refreshing way to look at the world around you - a chance to learn. And it is a way I think more adults need to look at the world, and others.

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