A Snowman Would Not Want to Keep Itself Warm

Before dinner last night, I helped my nieces Amber and Julie with their respective homework. I read to Julie the book she borrowed from her school's library. (Julie is in kindergarten, while Amber first grade at Maple Green Elementary in Surrey, here in British Columbia, Canada.)

The book was Friendly Snowman, written by Sharon Gordon (1980, Troll Associates). It tells of how to make a snowman and what sort of things a snowman needs, including the things to keep itself warm, to which the ever reactive and curious Julie wondered: "Uncle, doesn't the snowman need to be cold instead? because keeping itself warm will otherwise melt it."

Wow! Julie seemed to have read my mind, for that was what I was exactly thinking when I got to that part of the story. "You're right, Julie. Brilliant!" I said with a philosophic smile on my face.

That's the kind of details many children's books are missing. Not because a story is only fictional that the writer will already disregard the scientific laws of reason and logic.

So, let's go back to the friendly snowman...

If I were the one who wrote the book, I would have definitely made the following detail:

...that the snowman needs a coat, a scarf, and a bonnet NOT because it needs to keep itself warm BUT simply for aesthetic reasons--to adorn itself, to make itself appear attractive especially to children. Because, logically, since it is chiefly made of snow and ice, a snowman would prefer a cold environment. In fact, the colder the weather, the better chance for the snowman to survive. The moment the temperature rises--becomes warmer--that would be the end of a snowman's life, for it would surely begin to melt. Therefore, "to keep the snowman warm" defies the very essence of being a snowman.

Some people may argue, "Why put significance and so much emphasis on such trivial detail, when, after all, the book was particularly written for children?"

My answer is: For in such way, no matter how trivial such details are, we are able to instill in the minds of children a subliminal sense of logic which will doubtlessly be a big help for them in understanding the world and in solving their own problems as they grow up. For no lesson is more potent and enduring than those learned in childhood.

Besides, correcting the details is different from complicating or putting so much details in the story. It's simply a matter of injecting a simple sense of logic. Like, instead of writing "the snowman needs a coat, a scarf, and a bonnet to keep itself warm," write "the snowman needs a coat, a scarf, and a bonnet to make itself attractive to children," which is as simple as the first yet logical and more sensical.

After helping the children with their homework, cousin Mike and his wife Marivic arrived from work, in time for dinner.

I rested early; after dinner and washing the dishes, I headed to my sleeping place and continued reading A History of Writing by Steven Roger Fischer while listening to Echo & the Bunnymen songs on my portable MP3 player. The last song I remember reverberating in my ears, before I finally fell asleep, around 10, was "Nothing Lasts Forever," from the Evergreen album.

"Nothing Lasts Forever" (Ian McCulloch / Will Sergeant)
by Echo & the Bunnymen
(Evergreen, 1997, London)

I want it now I want it now
Not the promises of what tomorrow brings
I need to live in dreams today
I'm tired of the song that sorrow sings

I want more than I can get
Just trying to trying to trying to forget

I walk to you through winds of fire
And never let you know the way I feel
Under skin is where I hide love
That always gets me on my knees

I want more than I can get
Just trying to trying to trying to forget

Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever

I want it now I want it now
Don’t tell me that my ship is coming in
Nothing comes to those who wait
Time's running out before you're running in

I want more than I can get
Just trying to trying to trying to forget
Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever

All the shadows in the fields are coming to you
All the shadows in the fields are coming to you
All the shadows in the fields are coming to you


aLfie