This was the last Calvin and Hobbes strip ever printed.
For a child, snow is a miracle. The heavy white fog that blankets the world, casting the sun's rays brilliantly back into the sky, pleasantly illuminates our adult lives, but the weight of the snow on the ground presses against our more "mature" senses in a less romantic way: "I'm going to have to shovel this stuff." "I wonder if the roads are safe." For a child, the vivid white powder bears no burdens. In the most impressionable stage of his life when all his experiences are adventures and he's developing his perception of the world with every wisp of sensation it provides him, the snow is nature's most comprehensive sudden impulse, reshaping and refocusing his lens. Do you remember taking your first delicate steps into the fresh white snow as a child? I do. I tried desperately not to break through it for fear of shattering the dream I felt all around me. When the serenity remained intact, I realized I had my first canvas spread out at my feet. It was magical.
Grown up now, I don't always take the time to stop, hold my breath, and step out onto the snow with that childlike wonder, although the ability to appreciate such an immaterial act was crystalized in my mind long ago. Bill Watterson tends to pluck that particular chord within me more often now than I let nature do the same. That's why I posted my favorite strip of all time today. I didn't really think I had anything else to learn from that spiky-haired hellian and his strip-ed friend, but this morning when I saw that strip and I felt the excitement of the world through Calvin's eyes, I realized that the snow is just another color. When I open the door today to step out into 2006, there won't be any snow on the ground. The world is still my canvas.
Make 2006 the best year of your life. Don't leave your canvas waiting, untouched. From every step you take, the ripples of beautiful colors will flow and blanket the world like so much fallen snow. Step surely. Walk straight. Go in peace, and know that you go with God.
2 comments:
Some awesome writing here dude. You could very easily get a song out of this entry. Really an extrodinary reflection. Can't believe it took me 2 weeks to read it.
in some ways people (especially me) never really want to disturb the things surrounding them, but to really be successful you must disturb the perfect sheet of snow, and make footprints. This entry moved me.
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