Dear Josh, I don’t know if I agree with your statements about the bee and the theater etc. It seems to me that we start out as an infant and we relate to our parents, most of our time spent with our mom. If we are lucky, and we have a loving mom, and dad, who really nurture us, we build on that as we meet other people. We are open to other people and we increase our understanding of our world. If our parents are aloof, or indifferent, or in a worst case scenario, abusive, then we build on that as we meet other people, and we are distrustful or suspicious or afraid. So I’m either on to something here or I’ve missed the point very badly. I would be interested in your thoughts.
Greetings Gandolfo! Thanks for reading, and taking the time to comment. I think I get your point and agree with your observations. I believe Garfield is coming at it from a different perspective (maybe a view from above). With the theater example (or a movie), you only understand it when you see how the character interact with others (the story). You could think of a family this way, as you mention, "If we are lucky, we have a loving mom, and dad..." When you say "If we are lucky," you are pointed to the idea that this is not always the case (unfortunately). How do we come to know this? Not by studying one specific individual who may have a loving parents (but by zooming out a bit to see that this is not always so). I think this is Garfield's point, but then again, I am only taking a small passage from his book!
Dear Josh, I don’t know if I agree with your statements about the bee and the theater etc. It seems to me that we start out as an infant and we relate to our parents, most of our time spent with our mom. If we are lucky, and we have a loving mom, and dad, who really nurture us, we build on that as we meet other people. We are open to other people and we increase our understanding of our world. If our parents are aloof, or indifferent, or in a worst case scenario, abusive, then we build on that as we meet other people, and we are distrustful or suspicious or afraid. So I’m either on to something here or I’ve missed the point very badly. I would be interested in your thoughts.
Greetings Gandolfo! Thanks for reading, and taking the time to comment. I think I get your point and agree with your observations. I believe Garfield is coming at it from a different perspective (maybe a view from above). With the theater example (or a movie), you only understand it when you see how the character interact with others (the story). You could think of a family this way, as you mention, "If we are lucky, we have a loving mom, and dad..." When you say "If we are lucky," you are pointed to the idea that this is not always the case (unfortunately). How do we come to know this? Not by studying one specific individual who may have a loving parents (but by zooming out a bit to see that this is not always so). I think this is Garfield's point, but then again, I am only taking a small passage from his book!