Limitless Possibilities
Happy ever after…..?
(Part 1)
Have you read ‘the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night’ by Mark Haddon? If you haven’t here’s a brief synopsis:
Christopher, the narrator of the story, is a 15 year old boy who describes himself as ‘a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties’. He discovers the dead body of Wellington, the neighbour’s dog, speared by a garden fork. He is an initial suspect and then takes it upon himself to investigate the dog’s death. The book covers his experiences and into it is woven the story of his life: he is severely limited by his fears and difficulties when interpreting the world around him; he lives with his father and his mother, we are told, is dead.
Mark Haddon has said that “Curious Incident is not a book about Asperger’s….if anything it’s a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way.” Naturally, that piqued my interest and I was in the audience when he was interviewed for the BBC Radio 4’s World Book Club and it was fascinating.
One response in particular stood out…..did you think the book had a sad or happy ending. Many in the audience had thought it was a happy ending as Christopher says,
“And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of who killed Wellington. And I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything”
Mark threw out the challenge – “Is it truly a happy ending … Christopher will have numerous challenges as on a social level how will he secure a job, be independent – things many of us take for granted?”
I pondered on this (which is very difficult to do when you are also trying to listen to the rest of the interview!)
I remembered the quote from Robert Louis Stephenson “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive” and also Jacqueline Kelly in the Evolution of Calpurnia Tate that “it is better to travel with hope in one’s heart than to arrive in safety” going on to say “we should celebrate today’s failures because it is a clear sign that our voyage of discovery is not yet over”.
I concluded that it is a hopeful ending as Christopher will keep trying and doesn’t have the same limiting beliefs that many of us have nurtured. After all, where would we be if Edison had given up before inventing the lightbulb on his 1000 try?
Here we have Christopher who (at the age of 15) has:
• Made decisions
• Written a book
• Solved a mystery
• Pushed himself out of his comfort zone by travelling on his own
• Found his Mum
How many of us procrastinate? How many of us take a leap into the unknown? How many of us celebrate what we have achieved?
Let’s celebrate those accomplishments with Christopher and allow ourselves to travel in hope leaving behind those limiting beliefs.
For Christopher there are Limitless Possibilities!
The afternoon was certainly well spent as it got me thinking about so many other things. I shall be writing more about them next week so be sure to look out for the blog.
By the way, the interview will be broadcast on 7 July 2015….do try and listen and let me know what you think.