See the cat? See the cradle?

After finishing Cat's Cradle I couldn't stop thinking about the quote above that appeared more than once in the novel. Newt said this phrase several times referring to situations in which the truth would've been evidently clear but due to human nature was ignored. One of the first times was when we heard of an unhappy marriage. A man was a drunk, came home with lipstick on every night and his wife was very upset. John expressed surprise that the marriage was unhappy and Newt said the phrase above. It was said again when Newt was devaluing the institution of religion. The entire rest of the novel this phrase couldn't leave my mind, all I could think was how can we not see what is so true right in front of us? Newt could see it, twice, and some how most humans either chose or are subconsciously unaware of the lies we incorporate into our lives every day. A wife tells herself she's happy, a million people pray to God. Are we all insane? Do we all see the lie, the cat and the cradle? I think I see it everyday, but being human I ignore it, as I'm sure most people do. As we grow older we realize that it's much easier to be happy believing a lie than depressed believing the truth. This bring me to another part of the novel I can't forget. When Newt is explaining is painting to John/Jonah. Cat's cradle has been a game for hundreds of years, and Newt goes on to say children must go insane because there's no cat or cradle. Being a psych major I tend to focus a lot on perception and child versus adult interpretation, the mention of a child's view point really began to interest me. Do children see the lies? Is it because they are innocent and don't know that the truth is sometimes "wrong?" In this way should adults try to revert back to childhood? I can't answer any of these questions but they stayed through me the rest of the book and I hope some day I understand why we don't all "see the cat or the cradle."