Page 9 - News and Views Autumn WInter 2024

The story opens at winter’s end, when his first love invades his ice-locked island. In the shared journey
that ensues, he is confronted with – and at last faces – his mistakes
and his flawed character.

An ancient proverb appears in the book’s frontispiece and within
the story itself: “When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten.” [3.]
Deep winter sea-ice and a slow spring-thaw represent Welin’s inte-
rior life. Shoes act as an extended metaphor of his life’s journey –
his missteps and later faltering steps in the right direction. Be-
spoke artisan-made shoes, gifted to him by a daughter he knew
nothing of, represent the right fit that had always been lacking in
his life and relationships. The surrounding sea ice has melted when
he organises an unprecedented summer party, attended by some
of those wronged in his past and new friends. His heart and his re-
lationships are thawing. Having at last faced himself, his past mis-
takes and his fears, he readies himself for new challenges, now
possessing those bespoke shoes.

Fears inevitably emerge within everyone in many guises, con-
fronting a person with challenges, from great to small. On surfac-
ing, it is not a time to flee or look to slick formulas. Quakers habitually perform a simple foundational
practice. They pause and look inward for the Inner Light and seek guidance within silence, wishing to pre-
serve their own and corporate peace. It has served them well across many generations. Stoics essentially
do so too, but differently – reasoning their way towards wise conduct, tranquillity maintained (or not) be-
ing their litmus test. Daoists practice alignment with an intelligence woven into the fabric of everything,
euphemistically called the Dao, also through stillness. Non-dualists, they know fear and courage form a
wholly connected aspect of human nature. More of one entails less of the other. Unlike theists, no one is
testing them for their own good. There is no falling short. No redemption necessary. At its best, their art
is one of non-resistance to the natural cycles of balance and unbalance, harmony and disharmony, ever-
turning cycles of change, very like bodily systems of homeostasis and the seasons.

In all wisdom traditions worth their salt, an overarching adage is something like: ‘In life, no blame: never
force it, but face it, then go with it.’

Footnotes:
[1.] It won the Best European Drama Award at the 2022 Audio Drama Awards and was broadcast on BBC
Radio 4 on 11 April 2023. The programme notes reveal that it is “A high-octane satire about the restora-
tion of Estonian independence [which] has resonance far beyond Estonia's national events of 1991 [its
restoration of independence from the USSR], and speaks to collective responses to all manner of global
and community crises.”
[2.] Mankell is better known for his award-winning Scandi-noir crime fiction, the Inspector Wallander se-
ries.
[3.] From the Chuang Tzu, Mankell doesn’t cite which translation he is quoting from
[4.] Another favourite book of mine is Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight, a memoir written by Japanese
author, Naoki Higashida, who describes his life as a non-verbal young autistic person.

9