Legends are Lessons: The Indian Paintbrush

Yesterday at work I found a copy of The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie DePaola, one of my favorite story books growing up (and also one of my favorite Reading Rainbow books--just sayin’) .

The Best Children's Books!

The story is about a Native American boy named Little Gopher who was smaller than the other boys. He wasn’t able to keep up with the other boys in their physical sports and combat games. But he did have a gift for painting and making works of art. After coming to manhood, Little Gopher decides to make being an artist for his clan his profession. He still feels bad that he can’t ride out to war with his peers. But he focuses on what he can do: paint the histories of the hunts and battles and visions of his people.

And then he has to confront the ultimate challenge: to paint the colors of the vibrant sunset. No matter how he makes or mixes his paints, Little Gopher can’t seem to get it just right. Then one night, he hears a voice telling him to take his canvas of white buckskin and go out to a hill to watch the sunset, and he will find the right colors waiting for him there. The next night he goes, and he sees paintbrushes coming out of the hill, the brushes dipped with paints in the exact right colors. And the sunset painting he creates is finally good enough to share with his people.

It’s funny how when we’re adults, the stories we read as kids turn out to be relevant when we revisit them. But this was the story I needed to hear again.

Window on the Prairie

I’m different from the people around me because of my mental and emotional challenges. I try to keep up with everyone else--and in some ways I need to learn to take care of myself the way everyone else does. But I also have strength in my own creativity. I have important things to create, things I want to share with other people in the world. I don’t have to do what everyone else does. I don’t have to fit into society’s normal, expected roles. Because if I do, then people don’t get to see what I have to share, and the world is a much darker place for it.

And sometimes I feel like what I’m making isn’t good enough, that it isn’t the way it needs to be. And other times, I feel like my efforts to take care of myself fall short, that I can’t do well enough on my own to fit in. But I know if I keep trying, if I keep putting forth the effort, then sooner or later everything will fall into place, and I’ll be able to make it work.