My work as a supply preacher includes a good bit of driving on Sundays. Because of this I’m always looking for ways to ‘improve’ the time on the road. I mostly take advantage of iTunes and Librivox. I can’t tell you the number of lectures I’ve listened to on Sundays as I take my four hour (round trip), twice monthly, trips.
When my children come with me I like to have an audio book for us to listen to. Our latest was the Wind in the Willows. If you’re not using Librivox or Books Should be Free, let me encourage you to take advantage of their wonderful resources. The recording of the Wind in the Willows (it’s called version 2) is tremendous. I had never read it before. Now that I have children I’m getting to catch up on things I wish I’d read years ago (and I love it).
As for the book, my family enjoyed it immensely. This is one of the funniest books I’ve ever come into contact with. It ranks right up there with the Marvellous Land of the Snergs (see my thoughts on that HERE). It made me laugh out loud at least a dozen times.
As for what I will take from the book: I think the character Toad will stay with me. He is a wonderful, and always humorous, case of pride and humility. His pride is extremely funny, yet always destructive. His pride is part of what makes him so attractive, yet also what makes him repulsive. It makes him one of the most interesting characters in literature I have ever met.
As for humility, Toad reminds us of just how short lived it can be – of how it ebbs and flows. Each time his pride is dashed he is contrite and seems to be humbled, only to have the old arrogance come raging back as soon as his troubles are over. The story also reminds us that humility cannot come so long as one focuses on himself. It takes a group of friends around him constantly trying to humble him, and him finally taking his eyes off himself and looking to them, for help, and at them, in the hour of his final temptation, to finally overcome his besetting sin.
Toad is wonderful because he is a type for basically every human being on the earth. We may not be as boisterous or outlandish (he is, after all, a fictional character, and a toad at that), but it’s hard not to see yourself in him. His character led to many conversations between my 6 year old daughter and myself. One such conversation was basically as follows: ‘Daddy, why is Toad so prideful?’ To which I responded, ‘I don’t know, I guess we’re all like that in some ways. It’s a part of being a fallen person, pride is our most deep rooted sin.’ ‘But I’m not like that,’ she said. ‘I don’t brag about myself.’ ‘But you are bragging about yourself by saying you don’t brag about yourself,’ I replied. ‘Oh, I guess I get it,’ she said – and that was all that needed to be said.
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall – Proverbs 16:18
And finally, the Wind in the Willows also left me thinking of the value of true friendship. This is a ‘buddy story’ if ever there was one. As one who has seen the original Muppet Movie at least a dozen times (‘just a frog and a bear seeing America,’ says Fozzy the Bear) I can appreciate that. That’s not to mention the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, which are ‘buddy stories’ in their own rights. This book reminds us as well as any of the value of having traveling partners in this life.
Did I mention Toad’s idolatrous obsession with cars is wonderfully funny? My daughter used the phrase ‘motorcarolatry’ to describe it. She’s learning well. I’ll never hear another car horn without thinking of Toad (and being reminded of my own tendency to idolatry and covetousness). Toad’s disproportionate affections remind me of my own – and how destructive they can be. But let me learn the lesson well, and put it into practice, by taking my eyes off of myself and placing them on another.
If you haven’t figured it out, I loved the book. It’s perhaps one of the best works of fiction I’ve ever read.
Tides and Turning 