Monday, October 27, 2008

Childlike Wonder

Bizarro is brought to you today by Happy Little Angels.

I love children. When I'm feeling down about things or life's challenges are lining up against me, nothing picks me up like the effervescent smile of a child. There is something about their excitement for life, their spontaneous joy, their unprejudiced acceptance of each person or situation for what it is, without preconceptions, that makes me look at myself and say, "When did I lose that?"

All of us were children and we all agree that children are the future. So why can't we as individuals, as societies, as governments, be more childlike in our approach to the world, embracing it wholeheartedly, exploring it with childlike wonder, caressing it with love and tenderness?

Just to see what would happen, I ask each and every one of you who read this blog to get up right now, go to the nearest playground, hop on the merry-go-round, and make some new friends. You'll be glad you did.

35 comments:

Unknown said...

My, you seem to have quite the Santa fetish.

derekamalo said...

hop the merry go round


believe it or not dan rhode island laws stop that from happening ..

one of age must have reason to be present at the play groud..like an instrcutor or a person with a child..

places like chuck e cheese do not allow adults in unless they areaccomponied by children


but i hate kids anyways so who gives a f%%k

isee3dtoo said...

That was classic, now if you could do a pirate santa...

Jodie said...

my 1st thought is that the parents would get their kids and leave because there was a strange adult without a kid or a dog present on the playground. that's the breaks in this time of fear of strangers due to the bad behaviour of a very few child prediators

Unknown said...

I have no worries about anyone reacting badly to an adult on a playground. However, I can't remember the last time I saw one with a merry-go-round. They seem to have vanished, at least in the upper Midwest.

Jodie said...

I really enjoyed this one. It also reminded me of those old find X things that don't belong activities. And since reading your blog I recognized your head right away. I find it hard to understand the absolute evil of the campaign tactics which have tried to characterized Obama as, a) Muslim, b) a terrorist, c) for wealth redistribution. But I agree that there should be nothing wrong with a Muslim running for office, BUT it would be very difficult to be elected as a Muslim in our current anti-other climate in the US.

In Texas, we've got rampant anti-immigrant actions going on, even though a big proportion of our Hispanic & other immigrants (mostly Asian) are fully legal. One Chinese-American candidate running as a Republican found it necessary to actively bash immigration especially illegal immigration.

Anonymous said...

should we praise illegal immigration then?

Anonymous said...

I hate kids too much to actually do something like that. I am 17 years old and a girl, so going on the merry go around in my local mall wouldn't be that shocking to anyone...lol

Anonymous said...

I have always maintained that Chuck E Cheese is hell, and if I don't get my act together that's where I'll spend all eternity when I die. I imagine a playground wouldn't be that far off :-).

I'll skip the getting arrested for being a predator part, and just look in my own backyard (5 acres of woods) for wonder. I'll let you know if I find any.

Karen

doug nicodemus said...

merry go rounds make me dizy and ill so i will have to pass...but the jungle gym that i could go for.

mcchris said...

I like the seesaws; I can't resist. Always travel with a buddy for best results :)

Unknown said...

Merry-go-rounds are the best, especially when I can convince my nephews to get it going as fast as they can while I sit right in the middle! lol

Now, about illegal immigration, unless you are an American Indian, you are either an illegal immigrant, or the descendant of such. This country was well populated and in excellent condition when it was "discovered" by European explorers. I'm not talking 1492, it goes much farther back than that. But that wave didn't last, and they became a myth of the People. That being said, the people from south of the border who come to America are generally more entitled to be here than most other immigrants, because their heritage is much more Native American than European. Sure they generally speak Spanish, but genetically they belong to this continent and even this country more than anyone who claims to be a white or black. Eddie Izzard made a great point in one of his routines, European explorers would never recognize another nation as "Civilized" unless they had a flag. No flag, no country it was free for the taking. Too bad so much has been lost due to such a lack of insight and education. Thank you Roman Catholic Church!

Penny Mitchell said...

I laughed my ass clean OFF with these Santa photos!!!!!!! Most excellent!

FIDO said...

As most of you may know my grandpa or as they say in french pepere possesses a virgin ass

my pepere use to spin us around on the merry go round....he was sitting on it about a year back and we spun it ..his pants got hooked and a nail scratched the outside area of his anus


hes still a virgin in anal area thank god

hey anonymous if you were as funny as me people would except you more punk!!!

Unknown said...

I agree with shipping troll 100% and have been stating a similar case to folks round here in the south.

They actually have an age limit at our park. Even though I have kids and take them to the park and I am more than twice over the age limit... ah well. I prefer to feed the ducks anyway.

HollyBerry said...

oh snap... all those pictures of the crying children with santa were HILARIOUS! the thing that makes them better is the look on all the santas faces. they're absolutely amazing.

shipping troll-- ha HA! great mention of eddie izzard... what an intelligent guy, too. and you're absolutely right about the immigration thing. none of us are really entitled to be here... but i can't help that my parents decided to do it and the laws in place make me a natural-born citizen... i don't really have a problem with immigration for that exact reason, too. i wonder how many are still coming here these days due to the falling dollar and global economy? i would almost assume the peso is worth more than the american dollar..... then again, i'm not familiar with the conversion rate, so i'm really just making stuff up.

absolutely GREAT comic, danno. i've spent an extended amount of time with my boyfriend's neice in the past couple weeks, and she just happens to be going through those terrible-two's. his mom always says "it's lily's world, we just happen to be in it too." i never spent too much time with tw-year-olds, and i definitely know now why they're terrible. and it (again) comes back to communication. they know what they WANT to say, they just know HOW to say it. they get frustrated and throw a fit, and then change their mood like they're frickin bi-polar. MAN two-year-olds suck. but they sure are cute...

Unknown said...

oh great, i've got a... what do you call it when someone takes a name similar to yours on a forum, usually someone you disagree with?

Shipping Troll- Nice point. The best comedians always tell the truth.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Troll, there was nothing illegal about immigrating here when there weren't laws controlling it, so no - the only illegal immigrants are the ones breaking the law coming here. But a nice attempt at making yourself feel better.

SAYOTTE316 said...

Iv'e been noticng

Anonymous is Fido..

he rotates posting names each day

derekamalo said...

Wow sara thas not to obivous....misspellers...endless periods and triple spacoing is my game

thats not the same sayotte thats been postingcan tellby url

Jeremy said...

I don't know that I'll get a chance to today Dan, but I did go to the park on Sunday and played with my kids. There was no merry-go-round since it was a newer park and only older parks round here have those.

I did swing on the monkey bars, climbed the sliding pole, and jumped off the swings a few times. I love playing at the park with my kids. We also played a bit pf basketball and I dunked a few baskets on the 9ft kids hoop.

I love all of those pictures of kids crying on Santa's lap. If that guy is so scary to kids, why do we keep talking about him every year? I have never lied to my kids and told them he'll bring them shit if they're good. My youngest daughter figured it out by herself anyway.

Jezzka said...

hmm, i guess the last time i was actually at a playground was back in college. when some friends and i had sneaked into a public school play yard at midnight and ran a muck. there was a huge tire swing, draw bridges and slides. we played till dawn and watched the sunrise. then drove back into town to a diner for an early breakfast with some truckers.

we all had midterm papers due, sandbox sand in our hair and grass stains on our butts, but it was quite awesome night and worth the consequences. i don't even remember which paper was due, perhaps it was the don quixote paper for a comparative literature class, which i ended up getting a fat D for...

woooo night of swings, screw comp lit paper!! good times...

Unknown said...

I rarely rise to the taunts, but this one is a pet peeve. It does not make me "feel better" to believe what I have stated about illegal immigration. Tell me what is the difference between stealing and stealing? Whether by governmental decree as in eminent domain, or by simply shooting the people already in possession. Law or not, stealing land and attempting genocide on the original inhabitants, then adopting "laws" regulating who can come and play in your yard is Wrong. I don't hold it against the descendants of the original invaders. History is past and can only be re-written, but never changed. What I point out is that wrong is wrong no matter when it happens, or what the "law" says, and "illegal immigration" is a matter of perspective. Propaganda works no matter the generation. Stalin and Hitler would love Fox News and Bill O'Rielly

Anonymous said...

Dance around it all you like, troll. Illegal is defined as "forbidden by law or statute." End of story.

Unknown said...

I don't think there's a name for it, so I'm calling it an evil forum twin. I knew some (funny) jerks in college who would take people's instant messenger names and switch '1' for 'l' (that's #1 for lower case L) or, an 'l' for an 'i', an 'i' for a 'j', maybe reverse two letters in the middle to get a new name that looked a lot like the old one, then go around and say insulting things to the person's friends. Sometimes they'd even go as far as to copy the profile of the original person.

I have to agree with shipping troll, but I also have to note that the law of this land has been established in the way that the law of pretty much every nation on earth was established: claim some land, kill those who say it's still theirs, make some rules for dealing with whomever is left left. We're not unique in that respect.

And yes, the dollar is still stronger than the peso, by around 13:1. Of course it's not in our fiscal interest to let the people of other nations come here and earn money in dollars- it's way cheaper for our companies to employ them at home. So of course they don't want people here from other countries, except when they can keep them here or send them home at will and pay them less than naturalized citizens (see H-1B visas).

disclaimer: I don't think either of those things is 'right' (as in morally right).

Brock said...

Aw, jeez, troll, I was gonna agree with you before you did this.

Anonymous said...

robert finis, you're not really suggesting that the name "robert" is so unusual that there couldn't possibly be another blogger under a similar name, are you? you're being more than a little presumptuous.

Anonymous said...

Is that female newscaster supposed to look like she has a shrunken head? Watch your proportions, Dan.

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Nah, just that it's annoying to be confused with other roberts. It's happened to me before, yo.

Unknown said...

I see what you meant... sorry, didn't mean to imply you did it on purpose. Poor choice of topic on my part, just trying to give an example of it occurring, where it happened it was done intentionally.

Joyceagain said...

I love to ride on a merry go round -- the kind where you get on a horse that goes up and down. If I am ever near one, I take advantage of the opportunity. And I am 81! So there!

Penny Mitchell said...

joyceagain, you rock.