The joys of Calvin and Hobbes. I would like to take this moment to send out an official Travis Hellstrom Inner-Peace-A-Gram to Bill Watterson, creator of the famous comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. As of January 1996, the world acclaimed and ten year syndicated comic strip was official retired. Since then Bill Watterson has sold over 34 million copies of his 17 books, with a final collection coming out this October 2005. I must say I have enjoyed some of those books for many years, no doubt starting my readings only a couple years before the strip retired from papers. Nine years later and nine years older I sit reading the books still, a few minutes ago in fact. No longer a sixth grader laughing my head off in Melbourne, Florida but now a junior in college laughing my head off in Gainesville, Florida I would say I have come far...but that in fact would be a stretch. I am still so much a kid, loving things like cartoons even more today maybe than I did back then. I certainly appreciate the intricacies more intellectually now, but maybe that’s not what loving things like that more is anyway. I think kids are very pure in their intentions, even if it is their intention to cry to get their way, their motivations are often very simple and often understandable. I think a lot of my life will be spent defending the rights and abilities of children, allowing them freedom and opportunity like I have had, and if I am able to do that effectively I think it will comprise a hefty portion of my success in life. For every Calvin I think there ought to be a Hobbes, a First-Tiger. Maybe then we can all be so lucky.
