I chose you before the foundation of the world
I formed your inward parts
I knit you together in your mother’s womb
I called you
I heard your call
God only knows
God makes his plan
The information’s unavailable
To the mortal man
We’re working our jobs
Collect our pay
Believe we’re gliding down the highway
When in fact we’re slip slidin’ away
— Paul Simon
One thing about “Yours for the Journey” is that it’s a journey. Life is a journey, and two things are important about that: 1) We are going somewhere; 2) We’re not there yet.
Yours for the Journey means we are not alone. It means we belong to each other for the duration. It means that if you choose to screw up, you take me with you; and if I mess up, I take you with me. That’s the kind of thing that might make us think twice before we do something stupid. We have big words for this like “accountability” and “responsibility,” but in the end, it means that we are on a journey together. We are walking side by side.
“Yours for the Journey…” It’s our most favorite sign-off. Why do we like it so much?
Lost and Found, by Oliver Jeffers, is a sweet little story that reveals how easy it is to miss the point. It’s the story of how a boy found a penguin that looked so sad, he thought it must be lost. So, after enquiring all over where the penguin came from, he finally found out he was from the South Pole. So the boy and the penguin packed their things and set out to sea to find the penguin’s home. They traveled many days and nights, through good weather and bad, and all along, the boy entertained the penguin with stories. Each time the boy finished one story, the penguin asked for another, so on and on they traveled until they reached the South Pole.
The Red Balloon by A. Lamorisse, was first published as Le Ballon Rouge, in France in 1956, and became an instant children’s classic. The book is a companion product to the 34-minute short film by the same title that many consider one of the best short films of all time. One critic exclaimed, “More than any other children’s film, The Red Balloon turns me into a kid again.”
We’ve been looking into the subtle and not so subtle messages of children’s books this week. Today I’ve selected one of my favorites, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean. It’s a clever little story about a boy who really liked the two new goldfish his friend Nathan brought over to show him. He liked them so much, he offered pretty much any of his toys for a trade. Nathan turned down everything.
Micawber is an ordinary grey squirrel who lives in New York’s Central Park. But that’s about the only thing that’s ordinary about him.
Marti loves children’s books. She loves to buy them; I love to read them; and until reading became something painful for Chandler, he loved to be read to. Not that there was any serious correlation between the two, but for Marti, having children was a really good excuse for buying more children’s books. She still buys them occasionally, especially if they are illustrated well. With our first grandchild due in November, I expect we will start picking up on the children’s book market.
Marti introduced herself to me last night. We shook hands. I told her my name was John and she asked me if I spelled it with or without an “h.” What was she doing? She was illustrating that as a couple, we have a choice. Having gone through the devastating reality of sending our 15-year-old son away to a place that will provide for him what we could not, we can let this reality drive us apart as we each deal with the guilt and failure by sinking deeper into our own isolation and irritation, or we can realize that this reality has significantly altered us. We are simply not the people we were before, and the positive side of that is that we are now new. Our relationship is new. Let’s find out who we are. Thus, the introduction.
John Fischer The Catch 