‘The boy, the horse, the mole and the fox’
Good afternoon,
Today’s contribution is from Fiona Barnard, our Honorary International Students Chaplain:
One day, in the distant past when we could freely visit shops, I was enjoying a quick snoop around a bookstore. “The older I get,” I commented to the cheery assistant, “the more I go for the ones with pictures.” He put down the pile in his hand and shot out from behind his counter to show me a thick book entitled The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. “Well, you’ll love this one,” he declared with the confidence of a seasoned seller: “It’s doing really well in the charts.”
Well, although I did not buy it there and then (“never arm yourself with money when you are loose in a bookshop”), I did take note. I researched it online, read about the author Charlie Mackesy, watched some of his youtube clips about his faith and delighted in the pictures! Mackesy explains that it is not really a story, but rather a graphic novel about the friendship and conversation of four characters who meander around the landscape, looking at things and chatting: an inquisitive boy who is always asking questions, a mole and a horse who answer them, and a fox who has been damaged by life and is silent, “but they love him.”
Last week and this, as many of you will have been seeking to put months and years of processing and thinking into exams of a few hours, I thought I would leave you with some of Mackesy’s pictures. He claims they encapsulate a distillation of the things he has learnt in life: the fruit of daring to be vulnerable and living more deeply.
Perhaps in a spare moment or two, you can imagine yourself on a wander with these four delightful companions. What might you be saying to them?
Yours,
Donald.