Toy Story

"One of the most obvious facts about grown-ups to a child," Randall Jarrell wrote a century ago, "is that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child."

Yes, that's right. Before I completely forget what it's like to be a child, I went to see Pixar's Toy Story 3 last week. I witnessed how Andy (like every one of us) grows up and forgets how to see the world from the child's perspective.

Hey, guys, come to think about the age at which we still believed that inanimate objects, like Woody and Buzz, can feel envious and be genuinely upset. At that time, we might recognize that someone is feeling sad and then offer comfort in the way children find comforting. The comfort blanket a child offers, be it a teddy, Sheriff Woody, or a hand-painted Roly Poly Clown, is truly a sincere offer. Call it "egocentric" if you wish, but this should never be confused with the term "selfish."

Fast-forward to adulthood. We learn a great deal as we grow up. Ten or twenty years of hard work it had taken us. That was then. This is now. And we lose the capacity to see a children's world. We can no longer understand a preschool child when we lose the vision from their perspective, after transition to a much sophisticated standpoint.