Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for April 02, 2021

Maybe Calvin’s parents and teacher should treat him with benign indifference.

Happy days are here…..again.

(Listens to Calvin) I wonder what other video games are coming this year.

eh… yep

Works for me.

He’ll think about that tomorrow!

Ignorance is bliss.

“IF ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise…”

“Forget your troubles

Come on get happy

You better chase all you cares away

Shout hallelujah

Come on get happy

Get ready for the judgement day!"

—Harold Arlen

I’m with Calvin. Sometimes it’s better to delete and forget lamentable ideas, you live easyer without them!!

Actually, there’s something to be said for that. (Do you know you can DO anything about the things you don’t like?)

Unfortunately, you THINK you aren’t thinking about them, but down inside they are eating away at you. Not dealing with tough stuff is how you end up the human version of a dumpster fire. Face it, accept it, deal with it, and then let it go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5a0jTc9S10This is the cutest puppy video i have ever watched, the puppies look so little and happy ^^

Hate to tell you this Hobbes, but as of 2021 that’s how half the world chooses to live.

On the other hand, there’s the other extreme, which is plugging in to world news sites and realizing just how hideously flawed the world is and how we’re all utterly doomed…

Sorry Calvin, that’s not true at all. Why the other day I was walking through the park early in the morning not thinking of bugs at all, but STILL a mosquito bit me!

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.” ~ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy….

That’s how Trump got elected!

I’m with you Calvin. Livin’ the Fantasy!

Calvin doesn’t need that kind of negativity, Hobbes…

Starting….now

Dad, after a couple, opined, ‘Only you, can carve your reality..’

Why that sounds a downright pleasant approach to life. What do you think, Harvey? Harvey? Now that’s strange, he was here just a moment ago . . .

There’s that saying…something about fixing things you can and having patience with the things you can’t. ?? Calvin is half right.

Okay. I’m thinking that thinking of happy things is a good thing. Let’s go with that.

Excellent example right there, Calvin! :D

I have recently been recalling that I started reading Calvin and Hobbes in late 1987 and started off assuming Hobbes was only alive in Calvin’s imagination and that this started to change when some strips showed Hobbes as active when Calvin wasn’t present and others suggested that he knows things that Calvin doesn’t know.

I remember that I bought my first Calvin and Hobbes collection in 1988 and shared it with my nephew Stuart who was nine. Stuart asked me later if Hobbes was just a stuffed tiger as he sometimes seemed to be real. I replied “That’s just his imagination,” as that was my main belief although I already had doubts.

Stuart replied, “That’s what I thought but sometimes the things he does seem real.”

I understood what Stuart meant and learned in 1992 that Watterson considered Hobbes to be a separate character from Calvin and beyond Calvin’s imagination. Some people have asked me the difference between Calvin imagining Hobbes and no one but Calvin being able to see Hobbes. I think that my nephew Stuart explained the difference very well.

Calvin is on the right track, if he doesn’t take it to extremes.

being aware of bad/annoying things and letting them dominate your thinking are two different things

That’s not happiness, it’s denial.

Well, eastern religions like Buddhism and Taoism do teach us that the way to “happiness”, which is actually freedom from suffering, is to stop thinking. At all. That’s what the practice of meditation works to achieve. I think it actually works pretty well as part of a balanced life. You can learn to practice it while working at your job (necessary for food, shelter, clothing), as well as while sitting still.

I’m with Calvin. But it is getting harder and harder to do. It helps to ignore mainstream news and most media.

think – feel – do

It works. Try it.

As usual, Calvin’s distorted sense of reality turns out the be the best one after all.

Ignorance is not bliss.

The ostrich syndrome.

Law of Attraction: The belief that thinking about something attracts it and causes it to manifest in your life.

Sounds like Barbara Bush and Katrina.

Straight out of George Orwell’s “1984”: Ignorance Is Strength. (Remember Rome?)

Sound in theory, kind of a mess in practice.

Works for me..

Don’t worry. Be happy.

If you can’t do anything to change something unpleasant there is no reason to dwell on it. I’m thinking politics.

Happiness is a choice you make. Even in unfortunate circumstances, you can choose to be happy. It sure beats feeling miserable and compounding your misfortune.

Meow meow meow meow meow

“I like pie.”

Quick! Somebody send this strip to Dennis Prager!

Calvin has met a problem that he can’t ignore.

The problem with Calvin’s attitude is that eventually, hard, cold reality will bite you in the rear, making it impossible to ignore.

Hobbes, this six year old buddy has already learnt the secret of happy life.