Learning to laugh through it all

Last week, we shared some insights from author and speaker Ben Aldridge. In a recent online session, he explained to our Senior School pupils that these challenging times present an opportunity for personal growth. By learning to confront our discomfort, sit with it and embrace it we build our capacity for resilience. It is certainly a powerful coping strategy. But when award-winning children’s book author Guy Bass spoke to our pupils in years 3-6 as part of a virtual visit, he offered a different perspective: humour.

Laughing in the face of adversity is an expression of resilience. Humour is a bulwark against despair. Recognising — and even relishing in — the humour and absurdity of a tough situation fuels hope. It keeps us buoyant and focused on the positive while remaining clear-eyed and mindful of the negative. Anyone who has ever read one of his Stitch Head books will recognise right away that Guy understands this. The books are dark, eerie and full of frightening monsters. But his characters are loveable and there is humour throughout.     

 

 

 

 

After nearly six weeks of being stuck in our homes, each of us has probably had the occasional bout of boredom. Sometimes the best cure for that can be our minds. This is why Guy also talked with our pupils about the importance of curiosity and imagination. He shared a story of his early childhood and how he came to explore and discover the world around him. He would draw on walls and smash things with a ‘magical’ stick he found under a bush. He drove his mother mad, constantly asking, “But why?” whenever she told him he could not do something. As he got older, he developed an interest in comic books. By this time, he was running around the garden in his pants pretending to be Tarzan or the Incredible Hulk. He had discovered a whole other world of adventure in his mind.

Guy then took questions from our pupils. They were probing and insightful. Clearly, the children were fully engaged. Many of the questions were about writing stories — how, when, where and what to do to make it happen, leading us to believe that we may have some budding bestselling authors in our midst. Guy had some useful advice for them as well:

“Believe in yourself, don’t doubt your ability, run with it…, have ideas, then more ideas. If you can’t finish a story and have a better idea, write that one instead!”