On the Calvinball Field

I want to leave you with this to listen to when you have time over the weekend. When I was a kid, I loved Calvin & Hobbes. I still do. Calvin was bad at organized sports as a six-year-old. Instead, he’d play Calvinball with his tiger, Hobbes, where the only rule is that there were no rules except you could never have the same rules twice. Halfway through a game, suddenly the game could change. A soccer game could become capture the flag and capture the flag could end by hitting golf balls via croquet mallets. “Eventually,” Calvin noted, “all our games become Calvinball.” We are living in Calvinball as a society. The rules keep changing, the game keeps changing, and the six-year-olds may be having a blast, but everyone else is getting kind of weary. Have a good weekend. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ewerickson.substack.com/subscribe