Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Why Was It That?

That Boys and I were watching Toy Story last night. If you haven't seen it, or haven't seen it in awhile, it's great. Holds up very well after some ten years. We got to a point where Woody asks the magic 8 ball a question.

Philip says, "That's a bowling ball, right, Daddy."

You rarely want your kid to operate on incorrect information. You want them to have the proper knowledge when they observe the world.

That's not to say their imagination should be stifled. Two sticks can be an airplane. One stick can be a rocket. Our living room carpet can be water with our couch cushion acting as rafts. As of this moment, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are still real. That's all pretend, and very important and fine.

But there's a difference when it comes to them accurately trying to categorize the world around them. They do want, and need, to know that a fork is a fork sometimes.

"Well, not exactly. It's a funny toy called a magic 8 Ball."

"What is it?"

"Well... That's what it is... Uh, you ask it questions, and... It gives you some kind of answer..."

Philip saved me from having to explain what exactly is the use of this toy by repeating my own description, "It's a funny toy, Daddy."

"Yeah, it's a funny toy." I say, assuring him and smiling to myself.

But it got me thinking, why is it an 8-ball? Why not a 6-ball? Or a magic cue ball?

Some questions are unanswerable. It's a funny world.

7 comments:

Foofa said...

The 8-ball is black and looks the coolest. A bright red magic 3-ball or a yellow magic 6-ball would just not have the same effect. Don't even get me started on the stripes.

Jenny Jenny Flannery said...

The 8-ball is totally bad ass. It's also the ball you have to watch out for when playing pool. Therefore, it has psychic abilities. Isn't this apparent?

Anonymous said...

jolly says, "i don't know what it is. what do you think it is.

Valerie said...

Claudia Gonzalez gave me a Magic 8 Ball for one of my birthdays, in grade school. I thought it was one of the coolest gifts ever.

don'tneedtoknow said...

I loved magic 8-balls when I was a kid. They always cracked me up.

Phil said...

Natalie - I can see you have passionate feeling about this.

Jolly - You so crazy.

Valerie - Did you ever break yours open?

Elizabeth - They are pretty funny.

Duff said...

I never realized until recently that Joss Whedon was one of the screenplay writers for that. I'm a big Buffy fan. Anyway, that surprised me.

I think I'm mostly caught up on your blog now. Been out of the cyber world lately. Much affection to you & yours!