Tag Archives: anthropomorphism

Konn: just chillin'

My nephew T is one and a half years old. His best friend right now is a little stuffed frog named Konn (the Estonian translation for ‘frog’). Konn goes everywhere with him. When T reads a book, he holds it up so that Konn can read along with him. When they’re in the car, T puts Konn’s face up to the window so that Konn can see what’s going on in the outside world. I went out for a walk today with my brother and T, and when we stopped in at a coffee shop T thoughtfully fed Konn some pieces of his croissant (he didn’t seem to notice that Konn wasn’t actually eating any of them).

There’s just something so amazing about the way that little kids think stuffed animals are real. I remember feeling that way when I was young. I mean, just because something isn’t alive doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a personality, even if it’s only a construct of your imagination. I love that kids can so freely assign human attributes to inanimate objects. In T’s mind, he and Konn are the same, equals. When I hang out with T, Konn seems real to me too, and that makes me happy. Sometimes it’s nice to see the world through the eyes of a one and a half year old — a world in which it seems perfectly plausible that frogs like going for walks, reading books, and eating croissants.

So, okay. Here’s the deal with raccoons smoking cigarettes. This is kind of an inside joke between me and my brother. I’m going to preface this story by saying that sometimes I can be kind of…well, ‘gullible’ is not exactly the word I like to use. I prefer to think of myself as someone who can easily wrap my head around the plausibility of outlandish events. More easily than the general (rational) population, let’s say. So anyway, my brother was telling me a story one day about someone we both know, and there were raccoons involved, and at one point he mentioned that “they were smoking cigarettes”. I thought he was referring to the raccoons, and my initial reaction was a kind of awed elation – like, “Oh my god!! The raccoons were smoking cigarettes??!” Which I think is exactly what I said to him, to which he responded with something along the lines of “…what? No. What?? The people were smoking cigarettes…are you kidding? You thought I meant the raccoons?”

Here is the honest truth. I really, truly, in those first few seconds, did think he meant the raccoons. I actually 100% fully believed it. In my (slight) defense, I think I was fairly exhausted at the time — but it’s still pretty idiotic, I know. But you know what? I don’t feel bad about that. I like the fact that the idea of raccoons smoking cigarettes seemed within the realm of possibility. I mean, why not? Apes speak sign language and play chess, so why wouldn’t raccoons smoke cigarettes?

I don’t know, you guys. There is something kind of secretly pleasing about realizing that you have the capacity to genuinely believe in the ridiculous. It’s…pretty fun. Sometimes accepting things at face value — no matter how preposterous or fantastical they may be — is a nice little break from the rationality of reality.