You know what's neat? - Volume 1


So I usually use my blog to complain about things or to gush about tv shows or books or movies. But what about the simple things? Nightly news programs are full of so-called "fluff" stories about water-skiing squirrels or bears caught in a tree or incredibly stupid bank robbers who accidentally leave their wallets behind. As much as I complain about these stories, how they take away from actual reporting and turn the news into essentially "Web Soup" or "Tosh.0," you have to admit that people do like reading about random junk. Go on Yahoo on the average day and the top stories are invariably something actually news-y, a bit of celebrity gossip, and something incredibly hilarious or random that people have the need to share with others. Of course, in my mind the facebook is the place to find the most random of random stories on the internet, and I will proudly admit that probably 60% of my facebook posts are of the "OMG look at this thing!" variety. So, I thought, why not bring that sense of whimsy to my blog, the place where I can wax poetically on whatever I like.

With that being said, on to our newest segment on Tales from the Gloop: "You know what's neat"


You know what's neat? Babies. Babies are neat. Some people think babies are loud and smelly and annoying, and I know that I'm probably putting my foot in my mouth when I say this, but I think I kind of have a higher tolerance for that than most people. I think people who complain about babies, or children in general really, probably don't spend as much time with them as I do. Even parents probably spend less time with unrelated children than I do on a given day. I wouldn't be a children's librarian if I didn't like kids. Mostly what I love about really small children is the fact they they have no idea what anything is or how stuff works. As someone who similarly struggles figuring out how things work, I can definitely relate.

Mostly though, I just think that it is so amazing that these little people enter the world not even knowing what a tree is or that there could be fruit in it and that fruit is something you can eat and some fruit you can eat right off the tree and some you have to take off a peel. Think about that for a minute. Imagine you are on an alien planet and you don't speak the language and the environment is completely unfamiliar. When you arrive, maybe there's one or two people that you meet at first who try to teach you the language, maybe by pointing or making shapes in the sand. Except it isn't sand, its called "grjker" and at night it releases toxic fumes, which you didn't know when you first arrived which is why you spent several weeks confined to a hospital tent. Eventually you learn some rudiments to this society, but you are still at a loss as to the more complexities of their culture or geography of the landscape because, lets say, we aren't on a round planet at all, but instead some kind of lumpy asteroid that is connected to a cluster of other asteroids through some kind of invisible light bridge or something. But of course you don't know all that, you just sometimes see people inexplicably disappear and have absolutely no idea where they went.

That's kind of what its like to be a baby. And honestly, I think that's kinda awesome. You can watch all your retro music video shows on VH1 classic or reruns on TV Land, but you will never get to relive the experience of your youth. And sure, we all have memories that will remain with us: 9/11 or the 2008 election or our graduation from high school or our wedding. But there is something really really primal in kids that they know absolutely nothing... and then somehow they do. You can take a seed and plant it in soil and water it, and something will grow. Can you imagine not taking for granted how really cool that is? That's kind of why my job as children's librarian is easy. A lot of kids are pretty easy to impress. That's why kids love magic, and babies are completely mystified by peek-a-boo. That's also why I am so excited that I am going to be a mom. Because it is IMPOSSIBLE not to take for granted everything we know, or think we know, in the world. But for a child who knows nothing, EVERYTHING is new. Nothing is taken for granted because there is no basis for comparison. I'm not saying that I want to relive life through my child, but it certainly will be something to see them experience things for the very first time.

And that's why babies are neat.