Goodnight Nobody… on Margaret Wise Brown

Margaret Wise Brown may not be a household name, but children certainly have been formed by her tales. I am thinking especially of the 4 books I read repeatedly to my daughters: A Child’s Goodnight, Two Little Trains, The Runaway Bunny, and of course – Goodnight Moon. There is a theme of stillness and grace that runs through her stories – a willingness to say alot by saying just enough… and not too much. I was reading Goodnight Moon again to the girls tonight, and just watching how relaxed they become when they hear “and the quiet old lady whispering ‘hush’…” reminds me how hurried and frenetic I am. As the world slowly goes to sleep in her world, Margaret Wise Brown allows us to see that amidst the rest and stillness is when we truly ‘awaken’ and in the end, it is in this still point in a turning world that we don’t find ourselves as much as we are ‘found’ by grace. As the young bunny in The Runaway Bunny continues to think through the various means to out run, out fly, out distance her Mother, we find that distance is not only met and overcome, but the Mother so loves the young bunny as to leave her very life behind and take whatever form – be it a Mountain or the Wind – to embrace the young prodigal. When did children’s stories stop meaning so much by saying so little – but saying it just right? Even though Margaret Wise Brown wasn’t consicously engaged in apophatic thought, reading aloud “goodnight nobody, goodnight mush” comes closer to a theology of ‘presense through absense’ then half of Pseudo Dionysius‘ writings. In a world that is over fascinated with itself to the point of utter bordom, the child-like and selfless wonder of Margaret Wise Brown’s world is like a long needed swing in a hammock on a summer’s day.

I am just glad I get to say, in a whisper, “goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere” for a few more years… sometimes that is enough for now…