Sentiment and Sentimentality

Once I walked into a big box store and saw at the front of the store a little girl, barely more than a toddler, twirling and gazing at the lights overhead. She was clearly ecstatic, transported by their dazzle.

It was an enchanting sight, but even as I paused, captivated, I found myself noting, “If she weren’t so young, we would know she wasn’t quite ‘right.’ No adult—even no child who has been around long enough to have learned the mostly unspoken rules of our society—is permitted to be that...