With a lot of the animals at Tiggywinkle's, you wouldn't know there was anything wrong. Then a hedgehog uncurls and waddles away and you see that one foot is damaged, or a duck tries to fly and remembers that it's only got one wing, or a deer turns round and you see it's only got three legs instead of the usual four. The point is, they may be imperfect but they are still - well - perfect, I suppose, in their own way. A different sort of perfect. Apart from a bit of a mishap in the past, there's nothing wrong with them. They just can't live in the wild, that's all, but they're OK at Tiggywinkle's. And none of is perfectly perfect. We are all different kinds of imperfect. So why do so many of us pretend to be perfect?
Just for the record, I don't drive, I'm rubbish at sports, and I haven't a clue about mathematics. But I still get places, beat Tony at Scrabble, and do basic arithmetic in my head before you can reach for the calculator. There you are. A different kind of perfect.
4 comments:
Margi, you illustrated this so well in the Mistmantle books with the character Hope. He never seemed to notice that he wasn't quite perfect or that he had limitations. He amazed us with his ability to come through and to be quite heroic. He always showed such heart.
What a wonderful place Tiggywinkle's must be!
So true! And I agree with what Deborah said about Hope; one of the many reasons why I love Mistmantle is because the characters are loved and appreciated for who they are, no matter what.
I'm always reminded of that Roald Dahl quote, that goodness will always shine through in people who think and do good things, no matter what they look like or what they are or are not capable of.
Hope was one of my favorite characters! But ... that's too long a list to get started on...
And I don't play sports either - I joke that anything with the word "ball" in the name is something I ought to avoid for the sake of everyone else on the team.
I've never heard that quote from Roald Dahl, but it's spot on.
Hope made his own place in Mistmantle. Originally I only thought of him as a little occupant of the nursery, but then I saw so much to like in him that I ended up re-arranging the plot around him - greatly to its advantage.
There are few advantages in having a bad back, but at least nobody expects me to be sporty. :)
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