What if you had a Panda for a neighbour? I, for one, would be supremely excited and would do everything under the sun to befriend my furry neighbour. Leo and Molly too got a Panda living next door to the new home they moved into, and it was only the start of many beautiful conversations and moments.
Zen Socks by Jon J Muth is a book on life lessons or ponderings, delivered in pictures and words as gentle and deep as Stillwater, the panda.
The kids loved watching out for their neighbour, a suave panda who rode a bicycle with a basket in front. One day, they found out someone else from their home has beaten them into making friendship with him.
So they went along and introduced themselves to him.
The book follows three sets of scenarios and conversations between the three new friends. The first one has Molly telling Stillwater that she is practising to be the world’s best ballet dancer and might become one in a day, or maximum two.
Stillwater tells her a tale about a monkey who wished to train in martial arts, but the master would only get him to do menial work. And while he was busy working, his master would appear out of nowhere and attack him with a stick. Ever so often.
A moment to appreciate the subtly humorous depiction of this scene,
in a format that breaks from the rest of the book. The unassuming student smiling as he works, and the mischievous master who smiles for entirely different reasons.
That tale isn’t as disturbing, I promise. The monkey was being taught reflexes and awareness at all times, in practice rather than in theory.
At the end of it, Molly tells Stillwater she understands what he means – that she needs to be more patient, and trust the process of practice before becoming who she intends to, over a period of time.
A second conversation is between Leo and Stillwater, about how they have, in their lives, not wanted to share their cookies. And whether this makes them evil.
The resolution comes in them playing games that are free of heroes and villains, but filled with quest and adventure instead. A small but worthy ode to how we probably are taught to view life as black and white, leaving no room for the greyness that’s not necessarily all evil. In others, and in ourselves.
The third and last moments they share in this book are at a beautiful beach, and conversations that talk of making a difference in a small gestures and their impact.
Like returning a washed-up star fish to the ocean.
The book could be called gentle life lessons. But even more so, it’s a beautiful depiction of meaningful conversations between friends who love and trust each other. It focusses on smaller joys of just being together rather than bigger plot-conflict-resolution storylines that we’re used to. Stillwater is an insightful and encouraging friend, while Molly and Leo are perceptive kids.
Wasn’t it a fun time when nothing was a to-do list that needed to be checked? The moments we spent were lived in being present, without a care of what can become a good social media post or the stress of being productive all the time.
We enjoyed nothingness.
If we have friends who call us asking, “Hey, if you’re free today, do you wanna chill together?”, then that’s what this book is about, as well.
It’s one such friend’s birthday today,
and this post is in celebration of that.
“Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.”
– Virginia Woolf
lil book place 