Cogito ergo summa summarum - January 10th, 2007

A recent comment in a film music forum (yes, I participate in a film music forum, and yes, film music is good for you) ended with a query as to whether the Harry Potter books and movies were "just kid's stuff". This lead to the almost unavoidable comparisons to Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings (sorry, inhabitants of Narnia, you weren't included) as those other stories that many consider "just kid's stuff". This, in turn, prompted someone to comment that as kid's stuff these works don't treat kids like kids, but as equals.

[drop the needle]

Well, what is it with this "just kid's stuff"? Are we to take this as some sort of insult? Does treating a kid like a kid rob him of anything? What sort of ethereal equality is at stake here? Is there a point in further eroding something as ephemeral as childhood?

When I was a kid, I was treated like a kid. As an adult, I thank my parents for this every day. Because I was allowed to be a kid when I was a kid, I don't have to be a kid as an adult. Though in a way I have remained a kid at heart, there's something to be said for allowing kids to be kids, and adults to be adults.

When I was treated like a kid I was never abused, talked down to, or ridiculed, and the myriad of questions with which I had constantly bombarded my hapless family were always answered honestly, intelligently, and with great joy. Eventually, I have grown into an adult. That's what I remember, anyways. Or rather, that's what I'd like to think?

So what are we to make of a resource gobbling, contentious society in which kids are blended into the vast mass of faceless, sheepish consumers, in which responsible behaviour is exchanged for adult mannerisms, in which complex social issues and life questions are examined by way of the fortune cookie, in which critical thinking is considered the plague, in which centrism is equated with spinelessness, and in which the expression "kid's stuff" is used pejoratively?

I've read somewhere that adults can actually learn from kids. Hmmm... Yes. Something about innocence? Another great idea dragged and kicked around, chewed up and spit out in favour of self-satisfied, narcissistic cynicism. And when a ray of hope occasionally shines through the dense fog of pre-packaged sentiment and formulism that passes itself off as entertainment most of these days, we have a hard time with it.

Is it because oftentimes the light that reflects off the faces of children reminds us of our potential failures as adults? Of how we have conflated mature with self-absorbed, resolved with obstinate, infatuation with love, caring with guilt assuagement, and respect with being envied? Perhaps we have a problem treating kids like kids because we no longer understand what being a kid actually means. Well, hopefully not entirely, as evidenced by those rays of hope. Eventually we will recover and begin treating kids like kids again, thereby treating them as equals.

Current Mood: contemplative

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