The most recent novel I read was Wonder by R. J. Palacio. It was recommended by a dear friend when I ran out of books to read. When I checked it online, I found it was a children’s novel. Not even young adult ! So I was a bit skeptical about reading it as I was not sure I would find a children’s novel interesting. But believe me, reading it was the wisest choice I made at that time. It gave me so much happiness and hope which many of us may consider fictional but sometimes you need to escape reality in order to survive the real world.
The book is about a ten year old boy named August Pullman or nicknamed as auggie. He suffers from a medical condition which causes facial dysmorphia. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But according to the book’s description, auggie’s facial features were so abnormal or different that the world treated him as a monster. It may sound as the novel is trying to teach us the stereotypical lesson that true beauty is inside. But this novel describes auggie’s struggle in so heart rendering way, that you feel a deep connection with auggie. You remember all those times when the world made you feel abnormal just because you were different. Honestly, I was struggling a lot at my university when I read that novel, so seeing auggie try so hard to overcome his problems gave me a lot of strength.
And this novel taught me that a small act of kindness may cost you nothing but it can change someone’s life. Whenever auggie was about to give up, a small ray of hope made him stay afloat. And the only time I cried while reading this book was when everyone recognized auggie’s struggles. When they saw how hard it was for him and how well he did despite all the hardships. What auggie did was not something extraordinary or even commendable if everything was normal. So he may not have been praised and it would have been totally okay with everyone. But since it was a children’s novel, it was meant to give everyone hope. So when everyone recognized his efforts, I cried so hard. It felt like witnessing someone close to my heart succeed despite all the struggles.
And it’s then I recognized the importance of kindness. While living in this adult world, most of us give up on kindness. We do not expect someone to see or recognized our hardships. As a result we may become so busy in our struggles that we also fail to see other people struggling. And this cycle goes on making this world a tougher place to live. What if everyone tries to be like the people in that children’s novel. We try and recognize other people’s efforts and help however we can. Wouldn’t it make the world a better place for more people like auggie.
But most probably, the world’s not going to change like that children’s novel. So instead of expecting other people to be kind, we should try to be kind to ourselves. Let’s take a moment occasionally to validate our efforts, to praise whatever we are doing. Because everyone has their own struggles, they may not be visible like those different features on auggie’s face. But everyone’s got their fair share of problems. So we do not have to judge our success on the same parameters as other people. Whatever auggie did was not extraordinary but he deserved all that praise. So who are we to judge that we do not deserve admiration. Other people’s ordinary may be our extraordinary. So let’s be kind on ourselves and maybe we can then try to show a little kindness to the world too. Because we are all our little wonders in this this world.
Librocubicularist soul 