after seeing maurice sendak discuss his love for his older brother jack and his desire to create a simple but definitive book in the documentary, "tell them anything you want", i couldn't help but be emotional when i read this book. i was just happy that sendak was able to create a book to honor his brother.
i have never read shakespeare's "winter's tale" so did get any of the allusions, but luckily the forward explained it to me.
the book is the story of two brothers who are separated when a star collides with earth. one brother, jack (the name of maurice's brother) is sent to a world of ice and is frozen. the other brother guy tumbles into the middle of the earth where he is captured by a bear. he tells the bear a riddle which can not be solved and is released. he then finds his brother, jack who has become a tree. they embrace and are together again.
the story is short and sweet but the true story behind it is which is what makes it great. i do not believe in an afterlife but i do believe in it for my family. i think heaven is too complicated to truly exist. i mean what age will you be? who will you be with? what will you do? and what about all the gray areas in life, i know religious people who don't deserve to be in heaven and sinners who do not deserve hell. life is too complex for heaven to exist. the only reason i would want an afterlife to exist was if i could be my family.
i was raised mormon and one of their central beliefs is that families should be sealed in the temple so they can be together in heaven. growing up i never questioned this but as an adult, i saw how illogical it was. we do not chose the family we are born into and they are the ones that install in us morals and help us become who we are. due to this, i could not understand why god would separate families when we die. it seems cruel, god sticks us with people on earth, we love them unconditionally and purposely separates us when we die unless we are sealed in a mormon temple. i could and can not believe in a god that is so demanding and unreasonably cruel. my loss of faith in this mormon doctrine came when my grandfather passed away. my grandfather was muslim and very stubborn so though a baptism for the dead was probably performed for him, i doubt he would agree to convert in the spiritual world. as a result i could not believe in a doctrine that would not allow me to be with my grandfather based on faith and not love. i would rather be with my grandfather in heaven than with god. at the risk of sounding blasphemous, i know what my grandfather did for me in my life versus what god theoretically did for me. i know no one should be before god, but if i had to choose between a family member and god, i would go with the family member. i would not follow the example of abraham and would have never put issac on the alter.
due to this, i appreciate how it is guy's love for his brother that reunites them. love can overcome all and like captain and tennille sang "will keep us together".
also the artwork is lovely:
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