Isn't it odd how perspectives change without us ever even realizing it? One day in eighth grade, you could be facing the most difficult and emotionally exhausting paper you've ever had to write in your LIFE--when really, six years later you think back on that paper and it's surprising that your only thought about it is, "Huh. What was that even about?" Things change. Perspectives change. And a lot of times that's relieving.
But sometimes it's just straight-up strange.
All this to say that Calvin and Hobbes gave me an existential crisis yesterday. Let me be clear: I have always LOVED Calvin and Hobbes, from before I remember being able to read. It was my favorite comic, and still is. Imagine little eight-year-old Sarah going up to the librarian and requesting all their collections. And then shaking her head vehemently when the librarian said they may be a little too mature, protesting, "Oh, no. I get all the jokes." Slap on some gap teeth and a weird predisposition for violence and you have "little me" drawn to a T.
I was pretty bright. I did get (almost) all the jokes. If I didn't, I asked my mom. It worked. But even though I got the jokes, even though I was somber over the serious panels, even though I wrote poetry in the style of the rhymes he wrote in the beginnings of his books (shh, don't laugh), my perspective still changed as I grew older. Because as a kid, Hobbes was the coolest sidekick. An actual tiger. Who the parents could never see! The world of imagination was for me so bright and so real that it was completely logical that a genuine tiger would turn himself into cloth and stuffing to evade capture by nosy parents.
But as I was in the car yesterday thinking about one of the comics, I thought, "Yeah, Calvin and his stuffed tiger". And then it hit me: Without my realizing it, I had stopped believing in the magic of Hobbes the transmogrifying tiger. I told my mom and we got a good laugh. After all, little me had a crazy enough imagination to believe I would hurt my socks' feelings if I wore one pair too often over another.
But here's what's important. Sometimes perspectives change, and that's okay. But it's so easy to just not notice, and let those moments of change slip by. And a lot of times they're a bit more major than thoughts on a comic strip. Like letting bitterness into our hearts. Or deciding we can't trust God with our whole selves. So let's be more intentional about our perspectives as a whole. Let's take notice, and let's take charge.
And for the love of all that's holy, PLEASE pick up a Calvin and Hobbes collection the next time you get a chance.
