A few days ago I took my family to a carnival a few hours' drive from our home. I have three children and as I'm sure anyone one with three children will tell you, it can be quite a handful. My wife and I strategize before we go one trips that are over a half hour. We bring snacks and games for them to play, and CDs and DVDs for them to watch. We attend to them every moment and attempt to ensure that they are occupied. But somehow they always end up finding a reason to argue and fight.
This is that case with all children and it is why many parents don't go out of their way to play long road trips with their children because of the stress and aggravation of the drive. But my wife and I like to take the kids out at least once a month and give them a good time. It does come at the coast of our patience but we put up with it because of the joy it brings to them and to ourselves.
But what was interesting on this particular trip was that at the carnival here were many interesting games and arcades. The kids had their turn at many video games and played all of those tossing games that promise mega prizes but no one ever wins. Then we got to the end of a row of games and there was a fortune telling machine. It was a mannequin dressed like a gypsy encased in a glass booth. You are supposed to put in a dollar and it will print out your fortune. Every parent knows that his is just a sill game and that the fortunes that are printed out are prewritten and selected by a small computer with a relatively simple algorithm. But my children took it very seriously. They actually managed to convince me to put the money in the machine.
I did not want to spoil the fun so I went ahead and did tit. The mannequin moved around a bit and my daughters "fortune" was printed out of a slot at the base of the machine. My daughter was so happy and my sons got a kick out of the moving gypsy mannequin. But what I realized when talking with the kids on the way home from the long and exhausting day is that they wanted me to put the money in the fortune telling machine not to be able to get their fortune but to see the mannequin move. There is something so intriguing and stimulating to the imagination when a child or indeed an adult see some inanimate object move as though it were alive. This is the wonder of verisimilitude that has captured the imaginations of men throughout history. I am so interested to know if anyone has any insight as to why this is.
