13 year old philosophy. Actual 13 year olds said this. In passing. They didn't even look up from filling in the gaps of an exercise testing their knowledge on French indefinite articles (that is, the word for 'a' in French). Dead pan. One girl's homework diary had ripped. Her neighbour said 'I don't think that's fixable', her friend replied with the now immortal words, 'you can fix everything with enough duct tape', and, without missing a beat, the original pessimist acknowledged this with a nod and added, 'and spit'. Deadpan. For them, it was a throwaway exchange, up there with a 14 year old comment I heard today, 'if you picked up as much rubbish from around the centre (for NZ readers, please insert common room at this point) as you do boys, we wouldn't get in as much trouble for being messy'.
Gold. From youthful mouths.
They say these things and move on to LOL-ing and OMG-ing and screaming about One Direction and all hope for the future of the world is lost, but in amongst the inanity, there's gold.
Now, we, the older ones know full well that you cannot fix everything. Even with lots of duct tape. Even with spit. And let's not dwell on that particular image, even though I know you have gone there in your minds. It's an inevitable consequence of such image-filled prose. But cynicism aside, the phrase does strike some sort of optimistic chord. Who else out there is thinking Macgyver?
"A paperclip can be a wondrous thing. More times than I can remember, one of these has gotten me out of a tight spot," from the man himself...but, and more potently, given that these children were born in 2000 and have no idea about Macgyver...:
Pete: His name is MacGyver. He can fix anything. He could fix a computer with a hairpin and a piece of duct tape.
AND
[Murdoc is pretending to be MacGyver] Murdoc: I could fix this if I just had some duct tape."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuiFuh3KxcE
Wow.
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