My Pumpkin Can See

Since my kids are pretty young, when it comes to carving the pumpkin, they do the "drawing" and I do the "carving." I think it has to do with all that "gunk" inside...that, or the sharp knife thing.

Well, I was working on one of them while my daughter looked on, making sure that I "did it right." Of course, I wasn't, because she told me so. You see, carving circles in a pumpkin, especially small ones, is *really* hard. I didn't have a professional pumpkin cutter (you know, those cute little orange-handled things that work like a saw), so all I could do was carve straight lines, and then "adjust" things to make it look more like a circle.

Of course, my daughter noticed that my cuts weren't going to work, since they were "straight" and she wanted "round." I had to explain to her that I was getting there, that they would look like circles when I was done. She didn't believe me, because she couldn't "see" it.

It reminded me of sculptures. You know, those artists who can take a rough piece of wood, whittle it down into a masterpiece, and you've no clue what they're working on until they're nearly done. You just can't see what it is that they see.

I feel like that happens with programming. Sometimes, it's difficult for others to "see" what it is that you're trying to accomplish. It's hard to describe, but you know what you're trying to do. You just have to show them the end results and hope they appreciate what it took to get there. The perception is that it shouldn't be that hard, because it's just a simple web site, or a simple GUI, or something like that. They could probably do it in a couple of days, while you're claiming it'll take weeks, if not months. They just don't appreciate what they can't see.

It's a good thing my pumpkin can now see, 'cause otherwise, my daughter would have made me buy her a new pumpkin and start all over. I don't like the "gunk," either.