3 ms·
This reminds me of the C.S. Lewis quote “ When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am f
by irrational 5y ago
This reminds me of the C.S. Lewis quote “ When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”
This also reminds me of finding boxes full of superhero comic books from the 1950s and 1960s in my grandparent’s basement. They had belonged to my father and his siblings when they were teenagers. I loved reading those old comic books where every story had a complete story between two covers. Where it was always clear who the good guys and who the bad guys were (and if the good guy was acting bad, you knew that by the end of the story it would be revealed that they were pretending or being controlled by a bad guy). The stories were plain fun and uplifting. Such a joy to read. Decades later I tried getting into the modern comic books. I was disappointed by them. They were all serial stories that required reading multiple volumes to get the whole story. The themes were ones of depression, cynicism, bleakness, sadness, hurt, pain. I simply couldn’t relate and yearned for the comics of my youth in my grandparent’s basement. But, I still really enjoy the marvel movies ;-)
- mech422 5y ago>>Where it was always clear who the good guys and who the bad guys were As I get older, and the world gets more chaotic, I find I like this more and more.. When you have to vet the weatherman saying it's raining, its nice to have something simple/straightforward. As a kid, I always had a softspot for 80s spiderman - nothing ever went right for the poor guy :-P
- xahrepap 5y agoI can relate to that quote (as I'm sure most people can). When I was in middle-school, Pokemon TCG was still really new and popular ... "with children". Me and my friends played together, but I was horrified of the idea of anyone else at school finding out. I remember walking to a friends house with my cards and ran into some of our school friends walking the other way, and I did everything I could to hide my box so they didn't ask what I was carrying. What a childish thing to do ;P Now that I'm older, I hang my most prized Pokemon cards behind me like a poster. I don't care if my webcam picks them up during work. And I love to tell people about it. I make sure to never show shame around my kids about "little kid things". Or even "girly" things or "boy-ee" things. When my son started to show shame for liking "pink" things, I slowly started including pink and purple as my favorite colors when my kids asked. I gently yet swiftly squash any "barbies are for girls" type of comments when they're spoken around me. Sometimes I'll walk in on my young teen son shamelessly playing Barbies or other dolls with his little sister. I say nothing except things like, "Looks like you're having fun!" It makes me sad to think of the day when the wrong friend finds out and teases him for it. Hopefully by then he's gained enough self-esteem to not listen.
- NoahKAndrews 5y agoAs someone who was shamed for anything too feminine growing up, thank you for doing that for your son.
- itbeho 5y agoI remember the days when a superhero would fight an army of bad guys, against overwhelming odds, and win. Now it's an army of superheros (Avengers as an example) against one bad guy and their win is often ambiguous. It just doesn't have the same payoff for the time spent consuming the entertainment.