We have to realize that the child’s world is without economic purpose. A child doesn’t understand – happy ignorance – that people are paid to do things. To a child the policeman rules the street for self-important majesty; the furnace man stokes the furnace because he loves the noise of falling coal and the fun of getting dirty; the grocer is held to his counter by the lure of aromatic spices and the joy of giving. And in this very ignorance there is a grain of truth. The child’s economic world may be the one that we are reaching out in vain to find. Here is a path in the wood of economics that some day might be followed to new discovery. Meantime, the children know it well and gather beside it their flowers of beautiful illusion.
Source: On the Front Line of Life by Stephen Leacock; in John Robson's Words Worth Noting
Posted: 2025 Nov 15
It’s those eyes.They keep following me.
Jim T
Jim – LOL. They are a bit creepy aren’t they? Or maybe soul-ful.
He’s looking up, thinking — I wonder if she eats potatoes.
WONDERFUL face.
Worth a million (!) others. (See my other post).
Barbara – It is sort of pensive, isn’t it? But not for long . . . It fell to the peeler.
oh the humanity!
IKR? Life is hard, even for a potato.
How COULD you eat him! He would have got wrinkly as he got older.
Judith – I know! I felt bad, but only when I thought about it. (It’s a bit like that Johnny Carson show with the woman who had a potato-chip collection and he gets Ed to distract her and pretends to eat one . . .)