Kid Glasses

One of the greatest joys of being a dad is being lucky enough to get to see the world through your child's eyes. I use the word 'lucky' because the older I get, the more obvious it becomes that things are just so much better when you are a kid. Rather than trying to be poetic and talking about how the fingerprints of time smudge the windows to our past, etc. I'll keep it much more simple and just say to think of your favorite shows as a kid - shows/movies that you haven't seen since then and watch them now... 9 times out of 10, they will fail miserably at living up to expectations. This has happened to me with Fraggle Rock, The Smurfs, Macgyver, and a host of others. It is currently happening to me while watching Crocodile Dundee II. I thought I had found heaven when they re-released all the old video games. Of course, about 5 minutes into Space Invaders I thought "holy crap, I can't take this any more. It is the same exact thing over and over and over...". Perhaps the best example of how your nostalgia skews the truth comes when you visit what were once the coolest places on Earth to you. You realize your childhood bedroom that once seemed gigantic is actually the size of your current walk-in closet. That tree you could never quite conquer because it was 100 feet tall must have started shrinking because it is barely 20 feet now. And please, don't get me started on what I used to call a "creek" behind my house or the "fort" I built on it. No matter how many childhood favorites I think of, this pattern repeats. I suppose when I sit down and think about it, the only things that have truly worn well with time ...are the memories.