Within a span of days the book itself appeared before me twice, as in separate friends asking me, “Hey, have you read this book yet?” Then an easily recognizable snippet of one of the book’s drawings showed up when I was researching vendors on Facebook.
I’ve mentioned previously that when something crosses my path numerous times, I receive it as a sign that I’m meant to write about it.
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse contains 128 pages, although the book was left unpaginated. I believe that was on purpose. The font is hand-drawn as you can watch in the video link below. It resembles my own writing: a messy mixture of printing and cursive.
Author Charlie Mackesy says the story takes place in springtime “where one moment snow is falling and the sun shines the next…” which happens to be the exact weather we had today in my little mountain spot in Virginia.
Even though the book is about a young boy and three animals, don’t consider it just as a children’s book. Yes, it is a lovely book for a child and for every age.
Marketing people tell us to define the audience for our products and services. “The whole world can’t be your customer!” they pronounce with finality. I do believe this book is the exception to that rule. Anyone will benefit from learning its lessons.
One of my favorites is something that I have written about before—letting go of the need to attain perfection. Mackesy has the mole state, “The greatest illusion is that life should be perfect.” And the page with that particular illustration is messier than the rest, with the word “perfect” a little smeared. Mackesy penned in neat writing below the illustration, “My dog walked over the drawing—clearly trying to make the point.”
What is the book about? It’s about friendship and life. It’s about asking important questions and carefully considering the answers. It’s about acceptance and caring. It’s about loving and being loved.
I already know that each time I read this book, I’ll find something I hadn’t noticed all the other times. And that, my friends, identifies a truly remarkable book.
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The song in the front of the book
Norma:
I can well remember, on numerous occasions, Pastor Jackson reminding us that “perfectionism is a character defect”!!! Since that first time, upon hearing his admonition, I have reminded myself, whenever I am striving for something to be perfect, that my character is on view, and that I live in an imperfect world, inhabited by imperfect people, so, why then, should I expect anything to be perfect, except, of course, myself!!!