Have you ever taken a new puppy for its first walk in the park?

It takes forever.

Not only because the pup is clueless about that leash-thing pulling at its neck.

Not only because the pup has no understanding of the words you keep shouting at it.

But mainly because to the puppy every single thing before its eyes, ears, and (mostly) nose, is brand new and endlessly enticing. A clump of grass is a tickly, delicious torment. A sprinkler head an eternal enigma. A blowing leaf a scuttling strangeness to be chased down, poked, prodded, and pounced into submission. Sights and smells, tastes and textures, that we blindly tromp through as mundane and matter-of-fact are nothing short of miraculous wonders to the fascinated, frenetic puppy trying to take it all in. No wonder the whole notion of h…