As a person who teaches children, I am a strong proponent of children’s literature. It is a powerful tool to teach children, not only how to read, but also about life, different cultures, and to be imaginative. When my foster girls lived with me, we read tons of books. My five year old in particular loved listening to stories. We would read 2-3 books together every night before she would fall asleep. Today is her birthday, which made me think about her absolute favorite story. The story is called, “Jabuti The Tortoise” by Gerald McDermott. We read this story many times and she even chose it to take to school with her for show and tell. I pulled out the book this morning and read through it, and I found several moments that I really connected with on a deeper level and I want to share that with you.
Jabuti & The Vulture
As is true in most stories, there is a protagonist and an antagonist (often seen as a hero and villain). In this story, Jabuti is the protagonist and the antagonist is the Vulture. The Vulture is a very large bird and Jabuti trusts Vulture to keep his word to protect him. However, as the tale goes, Vulture uses his power to trick him and ends up dropping him from the sky; cracking his shell. Thankfully our tortoise protagonist has a sea of bird friends who are willing to pick him up and help put his shell back together again.
The images in the story are what really made me see connections from these two characters with myself and my ex-husband. I have always viewed him as being so large and powerful. And have seen myself as small and vulnerable. In this way, I see him as being like Vulture. But also in Vulture’s character traits. He is jealous and a bully. Someone willing to trick others into thinking they are safe, only to break their trust and hurt them. I also see connections between myself and Jabuti in that after I was hurt by my ex-husband, I have had lots of support from family, friends, and co-workers who have helped me get myself back together again.
The Vulture & Happiness
When people act out it is usually due to large feelings that they have and things going on in their life (but it doesn’t mean that it is okay to hurt others). In the story, Vulture is jealous because he is not able to sing and make music like Jabuti. He is not happy with who he is and what he is capable of. Instead of trying to learn how to sing or appreciate the other things that he is good at, he chooses to harm Jabuti. At the end of the story, the birds who helped were rewarded with new beautiful colors of feathers. Vulture on the other hand remained dull and unhappy. Despite everything that he did, he still wasn’t happy. He didn’t win.
My ex-husband was a lot like Vulture in this way. He was very unhappy (and angry) about most everything. He was constantly chasing his version of happiness by buying items he would never use, picking verbal fights via social media (to prove he was the most knowledgeable), giving up when the going got tough, and harming those who took power away from him. Any crush to his ego would result in him being unhappy. He does not find joy in the little moments or the people around him (unless they are constantly giving to him). What makes him happy is only temporary. Despite what he did to me and how quickly he moved on to dating other people, he isn’t truly happy. He didn’t win.
Jabuti In The End
At the end of the story, Jabuti continues on living his life. He does not let what happened to him stop him from playing his song and bringing joy to others. His shell remains cracked and patched, but he has the strength and support to keep going. He was kind and giving to those who stood by his side. He doesn’t give up.
This mirrors the story for many of us who have faced trauma in any way. We are fighters. We will always have invisible (and maybe some visible) scars from what has happened to us. But just like Jabuti, we can’t give up. We can still find enjoyment in the things that we love and the wonderful people surrounding us. We have the strength to keep on going.
