I moved house recently and was unpacking a box of desk-ish things when I found this card. My son’s writing isn’t too clear, but this is what he had copied out:
“Always let the world inspire and influence you but never let it discourage you. In fact the more it discourages you, the more it needs you.” Conner Bailey
It’s a line from one of his favourite series, The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer. I can remember exactly where we were when he stopped reading at looked up at me. “Mum,” he said, “I’ve just read an amazing thing. Listen to this…” And he read it out to me.
In that moment he realised that books give us something bigger than plot lines. And because I’m a lover of quotes I suggested he write it out, that he might like to remember it one day. He did.
Truth is, he loved that line and it resonated with him, but it resonated with me too. And when I see it written out like this, in his wobbly child-like hand writing, it resonates even more. There is a need for courage and compassion, for empathy and understanding, for a child’s eye view of the world - both as it is but also as it may be, at its best. There is a need and a place for those things, perhaps now more than ever.