Sunday, June 19, 2011

Observing children

i like to observe children. but that is a dangerous thing to say, i guess... :) like the girl from yesterday, she was sooo cute! she was cheerful and inviting, and just happy to be playing with the fountain in the sun. there were many other kids, proudly showing their parents that they could run into the water, over and over again. 
the one above is an old one, from the museum in lincoln (that we really have to visit again soon!). i dont know what you think, but to me its clear they are eagerly waiting for something to happen, you can deduce it from their posture.  thats why i like to observe children; it is so much easier to see how they feel, as they dont (yet?) have the need to disguise whatever they are feeling at the moment, or what they want/expect/or do....
now i feel old...! :D

How cute!

this girl was enjoying the fountain at the christian science plaza today. yesyes, there was a parade for the bruins, but since everyone else was there already, we decided not to go... the girl was not shy at all, she showed us how she ran into the water, and later she asked me how old i am. she went from 20 to 42, to 36 and eventually 29. ofcourse, she knew it!! and she is 6... :)
other than that, we saw how cruel the world can be. we went to an exhibition at harvard about the holocaust. it showed how scientists, physicians and politicians joined forces to create a superior race. this was called eugenics. to stop biological degeneration, as they called it, germany was supposed to produce more fit children. i do not want to go into details; if in/around boston, you should just go to this exhibition. what amazed me was that also other countries, including the US, were into eugenics. this included sterilization of people that were deemed "inferior", as determined by observation, family genealogies, physical measurements and intelligence tests. simply look at this horrible display used by the american eugenics society in the 1920s. it shows how disgusting the human race can be, and/or is... the exhibit showed how monstrous people can become, when given power. but... why do others obey? is this a reasonable question? i guess you cannot answer this question unless you have been in that situation yourselves. is it simply altruism? i dont think so. i think people have descended from altruism into mere egoism and selfishness.
yuk.. now i really became too negative. but this exhibition was thought provoking...
on a lighter note; we went to see the movie Super 8. i loved it! every single moment of it.... and please, remain seated when you think the movie is over; it is not quite... but most americans missed that when rushing out as soon as they thought it ended (including me; only because tim was so slow we saw it till the very end!)