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(15/08/2007...)

Calvin and Hobbes. Genius. If you haven't come across Calvin and Hobbes yet, go to a book shop soon and start reading this one. It's very funny and you'll probably buy it.

The thing that's quite unique about the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons is the way Calvin's fantasies are fleshed out. I really start to see things again from the point of view of a six year old boy - what's important, what's funny, what's cool, what's not, what six year old girls are good for, if anything. "What's it like being a girl? Is it a bit like being a bug?", Calvin asks, apparently in innocent curiosity. But then for Calvin, there's a fine line between innocence and mischief.

(Actually girls, do you know what it's like to be a bug? If you don't know what it's like being a bug, then how do you know it isn't like being a girl?)

And friendship. The deep bond between Calvin and his tiger friend, Hobbes, with whom he shares his life. It's about friendship. It's about the humour that springs naturally from true friendship.

Friendship - it is something that needs to be used if it is to stay alive. But if you put too much weight on it - in the wrong place - then it can break. It's a dilemma. There is no easy formula for deciding how much of your stuff to burden your friends with. There isn't even a difficult formula. You have to feel your way, and sometimes take risks, and that means you have to sometimes run the risk of losing the friendship by being too heavy. You have to run that risk because the alternative is starving the friendship to death. Friendship really does need to be used to stay alive. Friendship is made of burdening each other.