Read The Trumpet of the Swan for the first time this week. It's meant for children but somehow until recently I missed the fact that E. B. White wrote anything besides Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little.
It's a cute little story, full of coincidence, action and outdoorsy adventure. Don't be expecting deep and elaborate plot intricacies and approach it with your imagination wide open, and you'll have quite a pleasant afternoon listening to the trumpet of the swan.
There's a quote near the beginning that caught my attention. I adore quotes, especially short ones, deep themes that reflect life and summarize an illustration that takes 1000 pages in a dozen or so easy to understand words.
The main character, Louie, is a swan who can't speak or make sounds. He is worried when it is time to learn to fly that he won't be able to do that either, and is delighted to find he can. "I may be defective," he thinks, "but at least I can fly."
That resonated with me more than the trumpet sound Louie couldn't make. For aren't we all like that?
We all have 'defects' or weaknesses, things that make us imperfect. It is far too easy to focus on these.
We all also have the ability to 'fly', things that make us soar, to enable us to rise higher than we realized we could when we were born, to spread our wings and expand ourselves.
I'm impatient. Self-centered. Short-tempered. I have chronic depression and an anxiety disorder. I can't make rice. I'm defective.
But you know what?
I'm also compassionate. I'm generous. I can write. I can make people laugh. I rescue animals. I can ice skate, and, at least right now, until this hip gives out, I can jump out there.
I can fly.
This mix of strengths and weaknesses something we all have in common. It's what makes us human. It's what makes us interesting.
But what makes us even more interesting, is that everyone's mix of defects and flight feathers is different. What does your mix look like?
What about your characters?
What are your characters 'defects' and what do they possess that enables them to soar?
