Is Your 'Common Sense' Really Correct? | How My 3-Year-Old Son and an Apple Taught Me to See the World

Introduction

An apple is an apple, right?
Round, red, and crisp.

But when I read this picture book for the first time, in my heart I felt

I had this strange feeling.

Maybe, just maybe, it isn't an apple.

You see...

the door to imagination that I had kept sealed for a long time since becoming an adultmade a loud, slamming sound as it swung wide open. Haha.

I don't think I had that perspective of flipping common sense on its head at all since I became an adult.

Today, I want to talk about Shinsuke Yoshitake's masterpiece,
'It Might Be an Apple'.

I'm sure those of you who read my articles
will grin and think,
'Momo seems like the type to enjoy this.'

That's right. I do.
I absolutely love things that force a shift in perspective. Haha.

Have you ever thought about what lies behind common sense?

The young protagonist looks at the apple in front of him and
suddenly thinks this:

From here, the world expands in an incredible way.

The ideas are so free that it makes me laugh, but I'm also moved by how much you can expand on just one apple!

Because,

“What you see isn't everything.”

I felt like I was being told that.

As adults, we tend to judge things as either right or wrong, but children see the world from so many more angles, don't they?

For example, it might seem completely unrelated, but it actually is relevant.

My 3-year-old eldest son has always eaten sliced bread starting from the “middle” instead of the edges. Haha.

I was surprised when I first saw it.

“Wait, you're starting from there...?”I thought.

I had assumed that bread should be eaten from the edges, so that alone made me realize I was living by fixed ideas...
This is a story about that realization.
(Of course, he still eats it from the middle now. Haha.)

This kind of freedom children have is really wonderful, isn't it?

Have adults become 'creatures of assumption'?

An apple is an apple.
Just as it looks.
Just as it's named.

I realized that it's probably us adults who live under those assumptions.

For children,
there is no such thing as 'common sense' anywhere in the world.

The first time they touch something,
the first time they hear a sound,
the first time they see a shape,

everything is made of possibilities.

I realized that I might have lost that free space somewhere along the way.

Children's imagination is not afraid of being 'wrong'.

Reading this picture book, what I liked most was,

“the way they try to think even if they might be wrong.”
is what I liked.

Rather than getting closer to the right answer,
I am expanding the world itself.

That boldness and playfulness,
I was taught by my son, rather than the other way around.

Children,
before being told 'this is how it is',
have the right to think for themselves, don't they?

Don't you find that attitude a little enviable?
I find it incredibly enviable.

And I realized I don't want to take that right away from them
without even realizing it.

A little bit about my own story

My eldest son,
whenever he sees something, he asks, 'What is this?'

And I would always answer immediately,
or if I didn't know, I would look it up and tell him.

But after reading this picture book, I changed how I say things.

Then,
I get back plenty of 'answers that aren't the right one'.

But that is incredibly rich.
It's free, it's relaxed,
and I think it's wonderful, just like the boy in this picture book.

I realized that a child's world
is truly made of possibilities.

And this picture book,I really recommend it for children too.

My eldest son loves it too,
'Could this be something else?'
Seeing him expand his thoughts on his own,
makes me feel how rich a child's imagination really is.

Adults, too, want to try holding onto 'maybe' once again

Just by having that one perspective,
the resolution of the adult world changes a little,
and I feel like it becomes more interesting.

Although it's a picture book for children,
it loosens up the rigid minds and hearts of adults.
It was a book with that kind of magic.

Conclusion

Common sense is convenient, but it's also a word that can narrow your view of the world.

Just by being able to think,

'Maybe there's actually another meaning to this'

about what's right in front of you,
the scenery of everyday life becomes a little more fun.

"It Might Be an Apple" is a picture book that gently opens the door to that kind of imagination.

If you see it at a library or bookstore, please be sure to pick it up.

You might find that adults are the ones who are more surprised by it 🍎

📚 Today's Picture Book

"It Might Be an Apple" (by Shinsuke Yoshitake)

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