Cleverness

This month's read aloud is Mabela the Clever - a lovely African folktale featuring a feisty clever mouse who outwits the crafty cat by following her father's advice.

As I mentioned before, we can learn much from observing other cultures, whether through their folktales, or by actually visiting the country.  

On our recent trip to India, we had to take a three hour road trip, and it did not look to me as if all five of us, plus our American sized luggage were going to fit in that one car.

But of course, I had not taken into account the basic "cleverness" of our Indian driver who knew exactly how to solve such a dilemma......

WHAT ELSE IS THE ROOF FOR?  LOADING YOUR LUGGAGE, OF COURSE

New Year Resolutions

I have to admit that I am not a big fan of making New Year resolutions - maybe because I often find myself mired in midwinter gloom at this time of year, battling those grim gremlins that taunt me with last year's shortcomings and failings.  Making some sort of "resolution"  on top of all this angst just seems too daunting!

But this year, I had just returned from a trip to India where my daughter has lived and worked for four years, and some wise words from a lovely young Indian girl gave me much to pause and ponder at the brink of this New Year.

For part of our trip, we went on a house boat on the back waters of Kerala. 

View from our houseboat on waters of Kerala

This was our little "day" boat that took us on some local sightseeing trips

In the evenings one of the crew, a lovely young Indian girl, would take us ashore and give us a taste of local life there - she even showed us her lodgings where she stayed at nights while the boat was moored - a modest, but pristine room with bunk beds! There, adorning her wall, was a big blue ribbon and a certificate for best employee of the month.  And it didn't take us long to figure out that such an award was more than warranted - it wasn't just her delightful demeanor and sweet spirit, but it was her burning desire to shine at whatever she did.  Every evening as she shepherded us back to our rooms on the boat, she would smile and ask us ever so earnestly, "What can I do better?"

Hmmm, what a question to ponder!

our lovely Indian girl took us to see a local Hind festival in nearby village

This month's read aloud, Mabela the Clever, shows us that tales from other lands can deepen our perspective about the world around us, and help us see things in a different way.  And so, these wise words from a lovely young girl in a far away land, have helped me to see in a new way.

  Maybe if I can take her questions, What can I do better?" as my daily mantra, then that would be the best New Year resolution ever.  
I love how it ties into those words of Socrates, "the unexamined life is not worth living." 

 So, as I take time to "examine" my day, I want to focus on what I can do better - in all areas of my life.  And as I ponder that question, I link myself to this lovely Indian girl - my faraway friend from another land who has indeed taught me much about "cleverness."

Happy Epiphany

Earlier this week, Christians across the world celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany - when God was made manifest in the form of the Christ child to the Magi.  There are numerous spiritual themes to ponder here, but as I begin a new year of storytelling with a lovely African folktale that celebrates the value of "cleverness" or "wisdom," I think there is a connection to this Epiphany feast.

Traditionally, we link the Epiphany to the image of three wise men or kings following a star that leads them to the stable in Bethlehem.

But there are many sources that maintain that these Magi were not just three men, but that they were simply - people - wise people - sages.  And so, one can even infer that perhaps there were women among them (imagine  that - wise women!), and that an important element of this story is that these people were foreigners, and yet they saw what no one in Bethlehem area had seen - that this infant in a manger was indeed the "manifestation" of divinity.  In other words, the wise people from ANOTHER LAND  recognized the treasure in their midst where no one else did.

When I talk to children about the writing process, I like to explain that when I came to America as a foreigner, I was able to see things about this culture that people within the culture could not.  Just as when my husband (an American) comes to visit my native Scotland and observes certain things about that culture, which I, as a native, cannot see.  Indeed, the inspiration for my book Magnus Maximus stemmed from my experience of coming to America and feeling as if I had landed in the Guinness Book of World records, and so I wrote this story about an old man who is a consummate measurer. 

William Trevor, renowned Irish author, mentions this same phenomenon in one of his rare interviews.  He explains that he was one of those rare breeds - a Protestant who grew up in the predominantly Catholic country of the south of Ireland, and so he said that for much of his life, he always felt "other," as if he was looking through a window into a different world.  This "otherness," he maintained, was what formed his writing roots - that is what writers strive to do all the time - look and observe and see what others do not or cannot.  Being a foreigner, coming from another land, as the Magi did, can help us see differently.


So too, folktales - stories from other lands, can I believe, help us see differently, can give us a deeper perspective about life and about ourselves.  

Mabela the Clever is a tale from the Limba people of Sierra Leone, about a  feisty female mouse, who uses the cleverness she learned from her father to outwit a sneaky cat.  

The Limba people maintain that if someone is clever it is because someone has taught them their cleverness.  And what exactly was this sage advice that Mabela's father gave her?

"When you are out and about....


LOOK !  

LISTEN!   

 PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU ARE SAYING 

IF YOU HAVE TO MOVE - MOVE FAST!

Hmm, seems pretty basic for our sophisticated western culture?  Ah, but I think it bears further pondering - especially in light of New Year resolutions that some of us might be struggling with right now.......

 This tale from another land, from a foreign place just might help us "see" something that we have never noticed before.  

.....to be continued.....