The Enduring Fascination With “Then and Now”
The popularity of these stories isn’t difficult to understand.
People love transformation.
We love seeing how children grow.
We love comparing old photographs with new ones.
We love discovering what happened to people whose lives briefly appeared in the news.
But there is another reason these stories resonate.
They remind us how quickly time passes.
A photograph from 1983 can feel like yesterday and another lifetime at the same time.
The baby in the picture was once completely dependent on his parents.
Decades later, that same child would be an adult with a life of his own.
That passage of time is perhaps more astonishing than the birth weight itself.
A Story About Growth
Ultimately, the story of an unusually large baby is also a story about growth.
Not simply physical growth.
Human growth.
A newborn enters the world with no understanding of what lies ahead.
