My son Charlie has always been the cautious type.
He needs to feel comfortable before making decisions, no matter how trivial. He not only always wears his seatbelt, he reminds me to put on mine. If a preview for a moderately scary movie comes on, he hides his eyes before we have to ask him.
Heck, he was two weeks overdue before doctors had to perform a C-Section to extricate him. I’m positive he was in there calculating the pros and cons of joining mankind.
Danger is not his middle name.
When he was 4, my wife introduced Charlie to “Calvin and Hobbes.” I never read the comic as a kid, but my wife grew up on the classic Bill Watterson books. She was excited to let her son in on the secret.
Charlie took to it immediately. He plowed through “The Days Are Just Packed” and “It’s a Magical World.” Then my wife dug out “The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes,” and he read it front-to-back too.
“Calvin and Hobbes” allowed Charlie to feel brave without risking too much. He read about Calvin’s exploits in a make-believe world within a comic strip and it allowed him to live vicariously through the mischievous young boy. To be someone he wasn’t.
Soon Charlie was running around the house and jumping on the furniture, pretending to be “Stupendous Man.” He named the stuffed leopard he received for his birthday “Hobbes.” The two were soon together under his sheets, making plans, plotting against his sister.
That was three years ago and Charlie still reads his “Calvin and Hobbes” books regularly before bed. They’re even more dog-eared now than when handed down from his mom. Hobbes is a little worse for wear and isn’t by his side as much while he sleeps, but he’s still around.
This month marks the 30th anniversary of Watterson’s first published “Calvin and Hobbes” strip. In a world saturated with video games and cell phones, comics like “Calvin and Hobbes” are still valuable. They transcend generations and allow kids to live a life they can’t always in the real world.
Even allowing a kid to pretend his middle name is Danger.
Aaron Swaney: 425-339-3430; aswaney@heraldnet.com; Twitter @swaney_aaron79
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