I love to listen to podcasts as I walk, and recently I have been enjoying Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing, a podcast where the Chicago-based sociologist and poet revisits Studs Terkel's interviews. OK. Stay with me here. The past episode was on Studs Terkel's interview with Shel Silverstein. Ewing said something that I thought was really cool: "Young people shape our canons, because it's these early experiences of literature that shape our very understanding of who we are as readers, and what we're looking for." Ewing and children's book author Adam Mansbach then discuss the fact that our earliest literary influences are children's books. And I can say I look fondly on the books I read and that were read to me as a child-- from The Giving Tree to Love from Katie to Anne of Green Gables to Narnia. But one stands out in my mind. That book is Tacky the Penguin.
Tacky the Penguin is a picture book about a penguin named Tacky. Tacky lived with the other penguins (their names were Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly and Perfect). The other penguins would greet each other politely (Tacky slapped them on the back), march in unison (Tacky marched to his own pattern), dived in the water smoothly (Tacky did cannonballs), and sang beautiful songs (Tacky sang 'How many toes does a fish have?' loudly). One day, hunters came!! All the penguins ran away, but Tacky didn't. Without giving away the whole story, I can tell you that Tacky's differences saved the day.
We used to have so much fun reading this in the Main household! It is a hilarious book, and of course we loved to sing HOW MANY TOES DOES A FISH HAVE as obnoxiously as possible. And looking back on it, I think this book is somehow emblematic of our family. That is, if I had to choose a book that represented the things I love about my family, this would be the one.
I used to be so frustrated at how abnormal my family seemed. I would often wish that we weren't different: that we weren't so Christian, that my parents weren't so old, that we weren't so poor (note: my parents aren't that old or that poor). And I would get embarrassed when these supposed differences were more evident-- I remember when my brother had a piano audition for university, and for some reason my whole family was there, dressed in rubber boots and raincoats because it was Nova Scotia and it was rainy, and it was pretty obvious that we were out of our element. I kept feeling like our voices were too loud or we were taking up too much space or something. But at the same time, I was loving being with them.
We normally pick a Christmas tree together every year, and on more than one occasion we have chosen a tree that does not conform to the ideal Christmas tree-- once when I was young we picked a pine tree so wide that it seemed like it filled the whole living room-- we could even hide underneath it!
When my brother got married, it was another example of my abnormal family. Martin and Candice's wedding was far from normal. It was big and fun and a little disorganized-- just like our imperfect, tacky family. Conforming to the norm never seemed to be a priority for my family, and at times I have been embarrassed or even ashamed of that. But mostly, I am happy that I have a family that relates more to Tacky the Penguin than to Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly or Perfect.
In just a few months, there will be another member of the Main family. And it is my prayer that he or she (I just know it's going to be a she) will have the courage to be Tacky the Penguin: to unapologetically be herself, to spend more time developing good character than developing the appearance of good character, and, if it comes to it, to save the day.
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