If you are not familiar with Calvinball, here's an overview. I find it one of the most brilliant conceptions a human mind has ever come up with.
And now, all the ways life is exactly like Calvinball:
It is incredibly disorganized.
No two people experience it exactly the same, i.e., it's never played the same way twice.
The rules are always changing.
We're all making it up as we go along.
No one has any clue how to keep score. It is a very obscure point system.
No matter how hard we try to escape Calvinball [or I suppose however much we try to evolve as a species, or whatever parallel you wish to insert here], we always end up back at Calvinball.
It is totally random and unpredictable.
Masks are required.
It is an attempt to mix and match diverse and seemingly incompatible systems (in Calvinball, this is sports equipment. In life, its cultures, ideologies, goals, ways of thinking. I think we should take note here--it IS possible, and as Calvinball shows us, the incompatibilities aren't impenetrable barriers. We can all get along!)
It is beautiful chaos.
A special thanks to:
my brother
Calvin
Hobbes
Bill Watterson
Masks
All the blasted English lit teachers who beat symbolism to death for teaching me the stultifying skill of drawing comparisons where no comparisons ought to be drawn. Forgive me
The Public Library and newspapers, source of Calvin and Hobbes for young and old everywhere
Ginger
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