Imagination

Yesterday, my daughter, Laurel, was looking for a children’s book that she remembered from years ago to read to her boys. Heather checked the attic and found it. Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s The Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters. It is a wonderful example of imagination. It includes envelopes and letters to fairy-tale characters: the three bears, the wicked witch, the giant, Cinderella and Goldilocks. The letters are addressed and include stamps. It was published in 1986.

Later, I went online to see what other books they had written and illustrated since that date. And found The Jolly Christmas Postman.

Today, I pick up my mail from the post office box in Lawrencetown. It contains, bank statements, bills, advertising fliers and the weekly Guardian.

Meanwhile, through e-mail, I received two essays by Wendell Berry. From Emergence magazine, Berry’s 1989 essay The Pleasures of Eating and from Brain Pickings by Maria Popova, The Hidden Wound.

My final literary offering, that I pulled off the bookshelf is Heather Menzies’ Reclaiming the Commons for the Common Good. A book that I picked up in 2015. Her memoir and manifesto could be seen as a response to the George Monbiot video (previous blog). The same is true of my emphasis on imagination.

If you have grandchildren or are simply interested in creative writing, check out the books by the Ahlbergs, go online, or visit Woozles bookstore in Halifax.

Acknowledgements

To Laurel for remembering a book from thirty years ago. To Heather, for keeping the family treasures. Edward for making the digital connections.

References

Janet and Allan Ahlberg. 1986. The Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters. Little, Brown and Co.
Heather Menzies. 2014. Reclaiming the Commons for the Common Good. New Society Publishers.
Brain Pickings by Maria Popova. November 24, 2019: Kahil Gibran on silence, solitude and the courage to know yourself; Wendell Berry on delight as a force of resistance to consumerism and hardship.
Emergence Magazine. Issue #6 Food. The pleasures of Eating and Cooking.