Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for January 02, 2011

We all think that the future will be better. It’s what keeps us going.

Methinks we are deluding ourselves. Hobbes has a proper grip on the concept.

Wishing and hoping for those certain changes this year. Keep believing, Calvin!

G’Morning, Marg, Mike & Grog!

It figures Calvin wouldn’t come up with any resolutions for himself. Hopefully things will get slowly better as the year goes on.

Good Morning, Marg, Mike & ♠Lonewolf♠

Hobbes, the zen philosopher.

I was going to make some resolutions this year but I couldn’t find the recipe, so I made cookies instead.

Wasn’t this the final strip in the original sequence?

Yesterday is History; Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift - that is why it is called the present.

Enjoy the moment and take care of your little corner of the world, for it is by small steps that we progress.

Here’s to hoping that each of us will be better off this time next year.

Happy New Year to All …

Considering this exact C & H first ran over 16 years ago - I’d say the said slow small steps are those of a runt nanobot. One that is dragging its heels, in no particular hurry to get there….

Very true, what Hobbes argues in the last panel!

You know I did not know when I was 5 but I do now,your right little buddy. But keep up your hopes and stick around good things are coming.

Wiseguy411 well put, it is by small steps that we progress.

**Good morning Marg! Good morning Fran! Good Morning L’Wolf! Good Morning Grog!**

It was a new day yesterday, but it’s an old day now- Jethro Tull.

You’re right marg - I think they call it “hope.”

However, Hobbes’ comment in the last panel is one of my favorite Hobbesisms.

“Around and around we go, where we stop nobody knows!”

We need a purpose.

Carpe Diem!

I remember a CH strip where Calvin and Hobbes are out, at night walking under a starlit sky and Calvin says to Hobbes, “The best evidence that there is intelligent life out there is, that it hasn’t tried to contact us!” That about sums it up!

Sometimes Calvin seems too smart for his own good. Whatever happened to the period of childhood innocence?

When the future turns into the present, Calvin is correct that much of it looks too much like the past. We find that basic human nature never really changes, with its focus on selfishness, greed, and power. And if we spend too much time following the news, we begin to conclude that it is hopeless.

But if we start to pay attention to how many good people we come across each day, most of whom never make the news, and how many acts of goodness and kindness are happening in the world around us all the time, we get a very different picture.

And once we realize how much we personally can contribute to what is good in our own part of the world, it really changes our focus and gives meaning to our lives and to the lives of others.

What we all are unable to see is how often the smallest thing that we do for someone else gets multiplied over time and actually has a major impact on the world.

Have a good year, everyone, and never let discouragement prevent you from making it a better year for others, and a better future for all of us.

– Hobbes

Hobbes, those are very wise words indeed.

Happy New Year to you and to all of us.

I avoid cliches like the plague.

Making a New Year’s resolution should only be done if a person really believes that they will make an effort to adopt the change. Calvin would not consider making a change, so he is right in not making a resolution for himself. As for dad, I can see his reaction. Calvin obviously has not applied the desired changes subtly. LOL

Making a New Year’s resolution should only be done if a person really believes that they will make an effort to adopt the change. Calvin would not consider making a change, so he is right in not making a resolution for himself. As for dad, I can see his reaction. Calvin obviously has not applied the desired changes subtly. LOL

I think that this is why all of us enjoy Calvin&Hobbes, Calvin speaks to the child within us and Hobbes speaks of the maturity that we develop from maturity.

Having said this, as a historian by inclination, I abhor and reject our “far-too-short” vision level of change. I have the privilege of having a 93 yo father, born in 1917.when I compare his childhood to that of a child now, it is an almost epochal change in a single lifetime. At his birth, electrification and water systems were brand-new marvels that had just started to knock back child and adult mortality rates. Radio was the invention of the age while home telephones were still a wealth extravagance. Summers were times of Malaria and Polio while in Europe the “Guns of August” still thundered and trench warfare killed thousands while disease killed even more.

Today is not a golden age as we well know BUT for almost everyone it is a far better time than before. Our job is to take this brand new year of 2011 and make it even better!

It wasn’t until my father entered medical school that we were able to actually cure something; penicillin, the first antibiotic, was discovered. That was in the 1940’s, not even a full century ago. Just think of all that’s happened since. And computers, when I was young were simple adding machines, or the people who worked with them. The military used the most complicated ones for figuring trajectories, but we had calculus and slide rules for all our complex problems. If things keep changing as rapidly as this, can anyone imagine what marvels our society will encounter … how can anyone anticipate these changes well enough to make serious resolutions? Oh, well, it’s worth a try if only to focus our minds. And who better to do it to than someone else whose habits need reforming (Twain)?

Hear, Hear !!

RadioTom,

No, this wasn’t the final strip. This began the final year. The last strip a year later had C&H marveling at a freshly snow-covered forest and Calvin leaving us with the line, “It’s a magical world, Hobbes, old buddy. Let’s go exploring!”

I wonder if Watterson was ever inspired by this, published in 1963.

And once we realize how much we personally can contribute to what is good in our own part of the world, it really changes our focus and gives meaning to our lives and to the lives of others.

Too true, Hobbes. And Calvin, being Calvin, doesn’t get this. He labors under the delusion that the universe must cater to him, rather than the other way around. That’s why, to him, New Year’s Resolutions are for other people (i.e., Dad) to make. In other words, he hasn’t yet grasped the idea that if the new year looks exactly the same as the old one did, it’s because he himself hasn’t done anything to make things different.

He’s right. He looks and acts exactly like he did 26 years ago. Spooky…..

things have changed, for the worse imo. especially the stupidity and greed parts.

I for one quit making resolutions for new years. For me I had to change my diet and be very careful of what we eat. 2010 wasn’t great I don’t look for 2011 great.

How many times has C&H been repeated through the years?

Well said Hobbes.

Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.

I find the last panel one of the most honest things that has ever been said in a Calvin and Hobbes Strip

Wonderful cartoon except for the last panel. I was hoping for a more enlightening punchline.

And so History keeps telling us.

Is Hobbes pretending to be B. Watterson?

Some good posts from Wiseguy, SES, Hobbes, and others. “Hope springs eternal.” Submachine said I avoid cliches like the plague. So do you have something origianl to contribute?

I agree with you, Hobbes. I firmly believe that the majority of people are nice–at least that’s been my experience. :-)

Brilliant!

<< Hopeandjoy wrote: Is Hobbes pretending to be B. Watterson? >>

Hi Hopeandjoy. No, I am not Bill Watterson. I don’t pretend to be him, but some would say that in the comic strip, Bill Watterson pretends to be Hobbes. Others would say that Bill Watterson pretends to be Calvin who pretends that Hobbes is real. Still others would say that Hobbes is real but pretends not to be at times. Then there are those who believe that Hobbes is not real but prefer to pretend to believe that he is. And then there are those who believe that Hobbes is real, without pretending. It’s all very confusing, and I don’t pretend to fully understand it…..

– Hobbes

Thank you, Hobbes, for your wise words!! And in the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us, everyone.”

When you think about it, celebrating the new year is a rather unusual tradition because the “new year” is simply a point on in the Gregorian calender, not some mystical and unusual date.

Today is the tomorrow you were worried about yesterday!

margueritem, nice avatar!

Night-Gaunt49 said, about 2 cycles ago

Wasn’t Calvin in fact giving the reason for why things stay the same? Demanding others to change while they stay the same isn’t how it is done. indeed nothing will change with that attitude.

That is precisely why real change must start within my human heart–which is the whole program of Christianity.

Hobbes is actually GeneralMod!

Thoroughly enjoyed your last post, Hobbes. LOL

Grog, you might have something there! :^))

Hobbes thank you for your concise, succinct explanation which I fully enjoyed!

So much to consider…so much to learn. *:^)

I think U2 said it best:

“And so we are told this is the golden age And gold is the reason for the wars we wage. Though I want to be with you, To be with you night and day. Nothing changes on New Year’s day.”

Hobbes’ wisdom is correct, The big wheels indeed do keep on turning - the real life is beyond this one - but Calvin will have to come to his own decisions about that…

Quite a tribute for a defunct strip to generate this much commenary.

But sorry, Calvin, old buddy: You don’t have a future, complements of Mr. Watterson. You’ll just have to join the ranks of the fondly remembered, along with Annie, Brenda Starr (as of today), Cathy, Opus, and scores of others. At least they put in decades of work before quitting.

Intellectually I understand Watterson had a perfect right to quit whenever he wanted, but emotionally I can’t get over the feeling that he cheated us all.

yep.