Snow

Calvin and Hobbes: It's a Magical World 
by Bill Watterson

This morning, my friend Patrick and I were strolling through the neighborhoods around Tech taking in the new snow and trying to walk off the headache leftover from last night.  In one of the lesser neighborhoods of the area, we passed a guy in his mid twenties who had stepped out of his apartment to smoke a cigarette in the cold. I guess what follows says something about me or maybe my state of mind at the time, but from first glance of him I immediately tried to analyze what kind of person he was. I saw his cigarette. I saw his shoes. I saw his basketball shorts. I saw his hoodie, and I'm disgusted to say that my initial impulse was to distrust the kid solely on his appearance. Then I saw him stoop down and begin to make a snowball. As we walked closer, he began to roll it over his deck, cigarette stuck in his mouth and his legs obviously cold in the winter wind. The nearer we got to his house the more apparent his snowman began to be. Shame on me for being judgmental. Boy, do I feel like an ass now.

Don't get me wrong, I don't know the kid at all, and as Patrick and I passed his yard we only exchanged a slight wave, but I can't help in having a little more faith in humanity.  The guy, no matter what was going on in his life, still had enough childlike innocence that he brought himself to step out into the snow on a cold day and build a small snowman over the course of his cigarette.  I feel like the entire world would be a better place if more people took the time to momentarily slip back into childhood. I know I could use it from time to time. My twelve year old self would kick my own ass for judging that guy in the first place because that just wasn't the type of person I used to be. I made a decision as I walked on through the snow to spend more time being conscious of my mental impulses, to think more like a kid, and maybe build a snowman or have a snowball fight later on in the day with my friends. After all, it's a magical world.