It seems obvious to me that the character of Neil in A Tourist's Guide to Glengarry cannot comprehend life outside of his neighbourhood. Or at least not yet. But that's how it is when you're a kid. Everything is smaller. Have you ever gone back to your elementary school and noticed that the water fountains are more or less at your knees, or that you can easily press your entire palm on the ceilings, or that you can easily dunk on the basketball nets in the gym?
For me, all of these were true, but what is most alarming is the distance between my school and my house. In elementary, and moreso in junior high, I would sometimes walk to school, but it was a rare occurrence. I remember the distance being completely unconquerable on foot. When I did walk -- and keep in mind this was before the days of mp3 -- I spent the entire excruciating journey whining out of sheer frustration and boredom. How dare my parents make me walk miles and miles to school!
The funny thing is, the distance isn't really that far. At all. I can more or less see my elementary from my house, and make it there in 5 minutes if I walk semi-fast. My junior high was a little bit farther, but still only took me 15 minutes max.
To me, there is nothing more interesting in the science of cognition than the different between the brain of the child and the adult. Excluding the obvious differences of knowledge, thought, etc, the real mystery is the evolution of one's concept of space and time as we grow older. As a 12 year old, a fifteen minutes feels like hours, and five blocks feels like thirty. Now, these times and distances feel like tiny steps now that we have knowledge not only the entire city, but the world at large.
My question to all of you is, do you remember walking these (apparently) ridiculously long distances as a child, only to go back and realize that they're not so long after all?
I know exactly what you mean, Ryan. Whenever I visit my junior high or elementary school I'm stuck by how claustrophobic everything seems -- spaces that used to be huge are tiny to us now. I really like that you highlighted this idea, because it all works on a metaphorical "broadening-of-worldly-perspective" level, too. ;)
ReplyDeleteThis isn't related to place, but I've also noticed how my sense of time has changed. I feel like time is way less natural to children -- well, I guess it's not natural to anyone, it's just way more ingrained. I used to mostly ignore time and measure it based just on the references I had -- e.g. by the school bell, in "Barney shows" (an hour would be two Barney shows :D), but now most of us carry cellphones/iPods and are constantly aware of it.
Absolutely. When I lived on my grandparent's farm, their driveway (which I had to walk up to get to the bus) seemed so long; I thought it took forever. Really, it's only about 3/4 of a km long, and now as an adult I can walk up it barefoot and back (on gravel) to get the mail for my grandma, and it's not such a big deal.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it has something to do with our "adult-sized" stride vs. our "child-sized" stride?