The Invisible Mentor

Archive for the ‘Self-improvement’ Category

This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: Edith Nesbit’s The Railway Children, Seneca the Younger, Stoic Philosopher, Playwright and Tutor to Nero, and Shannon Moroney, Author, Advocate and Speaker.

Seneca (Photo credit: tonynetone)

Adventures in Learning

What you read is more important that how much you read. Ensure that your reading material is diverse, and vary in the level of difficultly to read. The “menu” of books should include a selection of not just bestsellers, but also books that are off the beaten tracks. In fact, the great thinkers who have transformed the world did not read bestsellers.

Why You Must Read Broadly – Tip 3 

Booked for Mentoring

Though The Railway Children is a children’s book, it’s a perfect demonstration of why a safety net is so important. In the story, you have a father who is taken away, and we learn he is arrested for being a spy, which is a false accusation. The loss of income of the primary breadwinner forces the family into poverty.

Mentor Yourself : Book Review – The Railway Children by E. Nesbit 

Wisdom of Life Profile

Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger was born into a distinguished family of Italian origin in Cordova, Spain around 4 BC. Seneca’s father, known as Seneca Rhetor was an excellent orator and wrote about history and rhetoric.  Seneca’s older brother was a proconsul of Achaea in AD 51 – 52, and was the Gallio before whose tribunal the Apostle Paul in the Bible was brought.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, Stoic Philosopher, Playwright and Tutor to Nero 

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured Shannon Moroney, Author, Advocate and Speaker. Moroney’s husband committed a sexual offence. She had make some tough decisions and  rebuild her life after the trauma. Here are Part I and Part II of Shannon Moroney’s interview.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Invisible Mentor: Shannon Moroney, Author, Advocate & Speaker

Website: http://www.shannonmoroney.com/ 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Shannon Moroney:  I’m the author of a book that just came out titled Through the Glass. It’s my memoir of a personal experience as a victim of crime but moreover of the spouse of an offender and the journey through the justice system. I’m based in Toronto, and I travel all over the place doing public speaking and putting some of my efforts into restorative justice.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Shannon Moroney: It’s a challenge! I think so much of my professional life is personal because it is about sharing my story. When I go to do a speaking engagement I always bring somebody with me who is just for me – my husband, my mom, my dad, a friend – and that brings everyone together so that I’m not alone with my experiences. When I go out and speak to a community group or work in a prison, somebody is there with me just to share it, and to debrief afterwards and that’s a really wonderful thing and I I’m lucky can do that. 

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it? 

Shannon Moroney: I spend it doing the things I want to do, and spend it with people who I love to be with. The work that I do is very emotional and involves a lot of output so I really have to focus my downtime on recharging my batteries. I love to cook. I like to do yoga. I can’t wait until I’m not pregnant so that I can really exercise again – that would be good. I try to do things that are a pleasure, relaxing. Definitely the most helpful and grounding activity for me, other than spending time with my loved ones is doing creative work, whether it’s painting or knitting or making a photo album, something that involves creativity is a really grounding force for me.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Shannon Moroney:

1. Know yourself. Act within your own values else you’ll be very uncomfortable.
2. Prioritize the people in your life over possessions and work.
3. The days sometimes go by slowly but the years go by quickly, and it’s good to embrace what you have every day because you don’t know how quickly it can change. I was grateful before this trauma happened I was somebody who was quite aware, and appreciated my life. When the life I knew suddenly came to an end, I knew that I hadn’t wasted any time before that happened.
4. Let people talk about you, sometimes you have to stand up for yourself, and other times you have to try not to take things personally, because most people when they criticize, they are coming from where they’re at in their own lives.
5. Be compassionate and hope that the compassion you show for other people, and the understanding and trying to put your feet in somebody else’s shoes is what you can expect from other people, and that you’ll be shown that same compassion.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success? And in your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Shannon Moroney: Success is a generalized feeling of positivity, of the right combination of purpose, fulfilling your purpose that you define for yourself, and having people around to share it with. For me, that’s really important. We use the word balance a lot these days, and I think it’s important to try to achieve the right balance of work and play, volunteering and having time for yourself – that’s a good formula to try to achieve. It’s different for every person.

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Shannon Moroney:

1. Frida Kahlo, the Mexican self-portrait artist. I would thank her for being an example of someone who could be open to the pain she was in, and not try to make it pretty. She’s not trying to please anybody but herself through her artwork, and in so doing, impacted a lot of people.
2. I’d love to meet Lucille Ball just because in my family whenever anyone was feeling sick, the solution was always to eat cinnamon toast and watch I Love Lucy, so I feel like she is a member of my family.
3. There are some authors that I’d like to meet and have dinner with. But mostly I would be very nervous about what I would say to them. I would listen to what they have to say to me and not do too much of the talking myself. Authors I admire are Barbara Kingsolver and Jeannette Walls who wrote a fantastic memoir called The Glass Castle and Lucy Maud Montgomery who wrote all the Anne of Green Gables books because I feel the values she puts forward in her books, as I read them as a young girl, impacted how I grew. The character of Anne shaped who I wanted to be – how she was different from other people, coped with her own frustrations. All those authors are people I’d like to thank for what they give, and for giving me a story or a book I can read and learn so much from.

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Shannon Moroney: There are many books but I’ll say The Catcher in the Rye even though I haven’t read it for years and years. At the time, I was 16 or 17 when I read it and the main character Holden Caulfield, I felt that I understood him and the actual catcher in the rye is a person that all they want to do is stand on the edge of a cliff and save all the little children who are playing, from falling over the edge of the cliff.

When I read The Catcher in the Rye as a teenager, I knew that’s exactly what I wanted to do in the world was to keep the little children from falling over the cliff, so much so that I wrote that as my ambition in my yearbook, my career ambition. By becoming a teacher, by working with young people who’ve experienced violence, and by finally becoming a mother myself, my passion is for children and young people and trying to keep them away from the dangers, and allow them to grown and fully be themselves. I hold that to the main character Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye.

Avil Beckford: You are one of the 10 finalists on the reality show, So, How Would You Spend Your Time? Each finalist is placed on separate deserted islands for two years. You have a basic hut on the island and all the tools for survival; you just have to be imaginative and inventive when using them. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the two years? T he prize is worth your while and at this stage in the game there really aren’t any losers among the 10 finalists, since each are guaranteed at least $2 million?

Shannon Moroney:

Two Years

If there is anyway I could bring my guitar with me, I would because the guitar is the best travel companion. I would try to build a connection with nature around me, observe and get involved with the natural life rather than try to fight it, and look for ways to survive and realize that everything I need would be around me.

I would also spend a lot of my time crying, I’m sure, because I’m a very social, outgoing person, very extroverted, and that would be the number one hardest thing about being on my own, would be not having other people around me.

Five Books

1. I would take a really long book that I have never read before, something really hard like War and Peace, something that would make me a better person. I have actually lived in some very isolated places where you read anything because there is nothing else to do so it’s a good way to get through hard books.
2. I would take some of my favourites that I can really escape into. I would take something like Anne of Green Gables: The Collection, or Little Women (Sterling Classics) – these classic books from my childhood that I could escape and love.
3. I would take one of my favourite Buddhist books of literature, which is The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times (Shambhala Library) by Pema Chodron because I think that would give me guidance as I coped with being on this isolated island.
4. I’d take a Barbara Kingsolver book, maybe Prodigal Summer: A Novel or the The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel. These are the kinds of books that each time you read them you get more so it would be okay to reread them.

Movie & Music CD

For music I would take the Indigo Girls, the album that has “Closer to Fine” (Indigo Girls) which has been a staple of my life. I’m not a big movie person, but it would probably be Little Women. I don’t watch new movies all the time, but Little Women is one I like to watch every year and I feel so comforted. I think where I’m going for this life on the island is for comfort and security and not new or scary or anything like that.

Indigo Girls – Closer To Fine

Cannot view this video, click here. Uploaded by IndigoGirlsVEVO on Oct 25, 2009

Little Women (1933) – Trailer

Cannot view this video, click here. Uploaded by warnervod on Jun 13, 2011

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Shannon Moroney: Possibilities, the opportunity to travel, the growth I have in my relationships. I’m at a wonderful point of new beginnings with my new husband, with our children about to be born. There are a lot of things. I feel so lucky to have the life that I do, to have the perspective that I do, to have come through such a horrible situation. I feel very lucky to live in Canada, very lucky for the opportunities that I have. I’m very lucky for my education and all of those things make life a lot easier, and it’s something that lots of people in the world don’t have, is the opportunity even just to dream and get excited about life because work and daily survival is so important.

For me, even though I lost my ability to dream for a while when I was just having to survive day-to-day and make all these difficult decisions that when I finally emerged and got back that ability to dream and have hope, it’s a wonderful experience. So lots of things excite me about life, and I hope it’s long.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Shannon Moroney: Connecting with nature is the number one thing for me. Usually if I see myself coming off balance because I haven’t spent enough time in and around trees, connecting with the beautiful wilderness that we have in Canada. But I do live in a big city so I also have little practices that I do that offer me a chance to reflect, whether it’s lighting a candle, burning some sage, or just sitting quietly is very important to me. And my soul is nurtured so much by other people and by being around the people who I love.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

Shannon Moroney: I would wish for more compassion in our world – that’s the number one thing I could think of, less judgement and more compassion.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Shannon Moroney: I’m happy when I’m with the people I love.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

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What if your husband committed a sex crime, how would you react? Read Shannon Moroney’s story.

Invisible Mentor: Shannon Moroney, Author, Advocate & Speaker

Website: http://www.shannonmoroney.com/ 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Shannon Moroney:  I’m the author of a book that just came out titled Through the Glass. It’s my memoir of a personal experience as a victim of crime but moreover of the spouse of an offender and the journey through the justice system. I’m based in Toronto, and I travel all over the place doing public speaking and putting some of my efforts into restorative justice.

Avil Beckford: What’s a typical day like for you?

Shannon Moroney: I’m afraid I don’t have very typical days. My days are often quite different from one another. At the moment, my husband and I are preparing to move and I’m supervising a big renovation project. When I’m not traveling with my book, I spend a significant amount of time each day responding to emails from readers, and groups that are interested in me coming to their community. I try to integrate a little bit of time for personal care, exercise, and so on. Right now I’m expecting twins in May, so I have lots of doctor’s appointments. But I don’t have a regular schedule.

Avil Beckford: How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

Shannon Moroney:  That’s an interesting question for someone like myself who has just come through a very traumatic period. It’s easy to feel exhausted or drained because I tire more easily than I did because of the emotional demands of the work that I do. But what motivates me are usually letters from my readers who are identifying with my book, who are thanking me for having a voice for them and just knowing that the work I do is making a difference in other people’s lives is what keeps me motivated.

Avil Beckford: If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

Shannon Moroney:  I think because I was put into a situation very suddenly for which there was no map or guidebook, no one to ask for advice, I had to forge my way forward. Maybe the only thing I would do, would be to take a little bit better care of myself if that had been possible. I did the very best that I could, and I didn’t have any easy decisions to make. To say I would do something differently might not respect myself the way that I was coming through a difficult time. I think at the end of every day I feel at peace with myself and the choices that I have made.

Avil Beckford: What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

Shannon Moroney: It’s been an interesting . A couple of years ago, I had just been remarried, so it was a very happy time. I was going through the final editing stage of my book, and my book came out about eight or nine moths ago. One of the discoveries I have made was that the process of writing a book, which is long and hard, and thankless in many ways payless. When the book came out I thought I would feel a huge relief, or a huge sense of pride, or a big rush of satisfaction, and what’s been a challenge is discovering that putting my book out into the world doesn’t close up my own personal life and my challenges. I still have to live with taking care of myself post-trauma. It’s been a lot of hard work and I think I thought I would feel a little bit more free than I do.

Avil Beckford: What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

Shannon Moroney:

1. In the field that I work in something that is difficult to cope with is the media. There is a lot of media attention around my book. Some of it comes to me and I experience it with a lot of integrity, and other times I’ve had to put up with very sensational reporting – headlines that really upset me and that has created a situation where I need to respond or not respond. I need to choose battles or not choose battles and that’s a big challenge. I’m still trying to figure out how to stand up for myself, how to trust the media.
2. The other would me making a living at all on the work that I do. I gave up my teaching job so that I could finish working on it full-time and so I could go on tour with my book. There is not a big financial success in the book publishing industry. Most of the work I do is with charitable organizations – wonderful community-based groups that want to bring me to speak with their groups but who are working with very small budgets. So I find it a challenge to negotiate the business side of my work. It’s not something I have experience in and to try to help others meet their needs while not sacrificing my own. That’s a challenge to say that the work I do has value. I have to pay my bills like everybody else, and I can’t always be expected to work for free or for charity. So that’s a big negotiation going on.

Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?

Shannon Moroney: The nature of my book, and the experience I went through was enormous, and beyond a challenge to overcome, going from a happy, newlywed successful person working in education, to a homeowner, someone involved in the community I lived in, to suddenly overnight to become the wife of a sex offender. That brought with it a horrific stigma, such painful trauma, and a great deal of judgement by others on me. It took a long time to gain back my sense of who I am, to fight against that kind of stigma and prejudice and move forward with my life. One of the most important things that I learned is to know what your personal values are, who you are as an individual because that is what will help and heal you should you go through a significant loss or trauma like I did.

Avil Beckford: Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Shannon Moroney: My biggest break in life is having a supportive family – a family that stood by me and helped me through a situation, who gave me the love and support I needed to go each step of the way. In terms of publishing my book, it’s a different story, I had a few big breaks and they all came by happenstance connections. Talking to friends, being open with the work I was trying to do in terms of writing led to some conversations with people who had connections in the publishing industry. Very quickly I found myself in the hands of a lovely agent and a wonderful publisher. Had I not been open with what I was doing, had I not followed up on leads I was given, when someone said, “Hey do you want to meet my friend’s brother-in-law who published a book?” I always said yes to anything like that. Any type of connection, someone who could help me, show me some insights, I think I was very open to all of that advice and opportunity and that led to some incredibly big breaks and some wonderful relationships.

Avil Beckford: Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

Shannon Moroney:  That’s a hard question for me. I never really think of the concept of failure in terms of my own experience because I had to survive so much that I also had to be kind to myself when things didn’t work out – when I took two steps forward, and then a step back in my recovery, and my efforts to move forward with my life. I couldn’t think of them as failures. I had to continue to move forward. A lesson I learned though is that nobody moves forward in their life on their own, and it’s a good idea to take up any offers of help that you get along the way. Not only did that lead to greater success, it also led to much greater happiness. Having people to share a success with at the end of a long road is a lot more beautiful than enjoying it alone.

Avil Beckford: What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

Shannon Moroney:  One of the toughest decisions I had to make was to break my wedding vows. My first husband already broke them to me when he committed these horrific crimes, but ultimately I had to choose to break mine to him. They weren’t broken automatically. That was very painful for me to be forced to change the kind of love I have for him, to decide to leave him behind in prison while I move forward with my life. To hold him accountable for what he had done, but also hold myself accountable for making a better future for myself. These decisions came with a great amount of pain. They took time. They took a lot of courage in terms of me saying to myself, that I deserved to still live a full and wonderful life even after I had been so terribly betrayed and victimized. The impact has been incredibly positive. I don’t live a life without sadness when I remember that time. It will never stop being painful but deciding that I could have a life, I deserved a life, that I wasn’t going to let my life be controlled by someone else’s horrible action. I found happiness again. I found a purpose in the work that I do and I also found a way to trust again and a way to love again. Now I’ve arrived at a time where I feel a great deal of happiness with my new husband and as we expect our twins to be born very soon I feel proud about the decisions that I’ve made to move forward.

Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Shannon Moroney:

1. Obviously the one I write about the most – the great trauma involving my husband’s arrest and incarceration.
2. Before that, in the 30 years of life that I had before this horrible trauma, what shaped my character and gave me the skills to cope in a way that I did, or when this trauma happened. Major events involved travel, choosing to travel at an early age, as a teenager on my own, going to Indonesia to live three months, choosing to live a year abroad in South America with my university.
3. After everything happened with my husband, choosing to go back to school, get a Maters degree in England, and open doors for myself. All of those travel experiences were incredibly educational and opened my eyes to the way people live in other parts of the world, and gave me a perspective and a lot of gratefulness in life I had even when I had to go through a horribly, painful time, I still had the perspective of the suffering that other people have to go through, and I could still be grateful for what I did have instead of think that everything was over for me.

Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Shannon Moroney:  Deciding I would be able to find happiness again, and to come through a trauma that I think many people might not have made it through, or might still be suffering greatly from. I think the greatest accomplishment was deciding for myself that I deserved a wonderful life, and working every single day, every day, to get to a place where I could reach that point.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Shannon Moroney:  I’ve been so fortunate that I have had so many mentors, leaders in my life, at all different points, all different kinds of people, every age, that have given me perspective on things, have given me advice, who have modeled for me who I would like to be. I would be nowhere without all the people in my life who are champions of the human spirit who offer guidance directly or by the way they live.

Avil Beckford: What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Shannon Moroney: Overall, a message I picked up along the way is that we’re not in control of what happens to us, but we’re in control of how we respond, and who we are. That message of knowing who I am, knowing what my values are, is something that has fortified me through difficult times, and good times as well.

Avil Beckford: An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar, in the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Shannon Moroney:  My one piece of advice would be that every night when you go to bed and put your head on your own pillow, you have to feel at peace with yourself, what you’ve done during the day, how you’ve interacted with other people, how you’ve treated yourself and others. If you feel at peace with all those things then no naysayer, no critic can get in the way of who you are in accomplishing your goals and that’s the advice I would give.

Everybody has people in their life that will judge them, that will be critical, be negative but ultimately at the end of the day, what you think of yourself and how you are with other people is what you have to live with. You’re the only person that you have to live with for the rest of your life, the only person you’re guaranteed to know your whole life is you, and that’s not being self-centered, but its’ about making sure that who know who that is, and you’re at peace with that person. When you see shortcomings in yourself that you not beat yourself about them but you work toward improvements.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

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Name: Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger

Birth Date: 4 BC – 65 AD

Job Functions: Philosopher, Playwright and Politician

Fields: Philosophy, Literature and Politics

Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger was born into a distinguished family of Italian origin in Cordova, Spain around 4 BC. Seneca’s father, known as Seneca Rhetor was an excellent orator and wrote about history and rhetoric.  Seneca’s older brother was a proconsul of Achaea in AD 51 – 52, and was the Gallio before whose tribunal the Apostle Paul in the Bible was brought.

Seneca, part of double-herm in Antikensammlung Berlin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Seneca was educated in Rome from an early age and received extensive lessons in public speaking and literary composition. His philosophy studies came from lectures he received from Papirus Fabianus and Sotion, adherants of Sextian moral philosophy; the cynic Demetrius; and the stoic Attalus.

Seneca pursued a political career, and in addition to being a lawyer, held the offices of quaestor (AD 31) and praetor before becoming a senator. After becoming a quaestor in AD 31, Seneca spent the next decade establishing himself as one of Rome’s leading writer and orator and won influential friends within the imperial family. When Emperor Claudius acceded to the throne in AD 41, for a time he was prominent in the court. However, he was accused of being the lover of Claudius’ niece, Julia Livilla and banished to Corsica where he lived eight years in exile. The exile was a great setback to his career as a politician and writer.

Fortunately for Seneca, Agrippina, Claudius’ wife recalled him to the court in AD 49 and appointed him as tutor to her son Nero. Seneca was appointed praetor in AD 50. In AD 54, Agrippina murdered her husband, and Nero at the age of 16 acceded to the throne. For the next eight years, Seneca and Sextus Afranius Burrus, the commander of the Praetorian Guard counselled and advised Emperor Nero in sound government. During the latter part of the eight years where they advised Nero, his behaviour became erratic and violent, though Seneca was compelled to overlook his actions.

In AD 59, Nero murdered his mother, Agrippina, explaining to the senate – in a dishonest statement prepared by Seneca – a discovery of her plot against the throne. Burrus died in AD 62, and one of his successors, Ofonius Tigellinus had an evil influence over Nero. Seneca asked to retire and his request was granted. Seneca devoted the next three years of his life to his studies and writing and created a great body of work in that short time.

In AD 65, Seneca was implicated in the Pisonian conspiracy to assinate Nero. Though the evidence was very weak, Seneca was sentenced to self-execution, a common practice under Roman emperors at that time. Seneca severed several veins and bled to death. Seneca’s wife wanted to commit suicide, but he convinced her not to do so.

According to Wikipedia, “There is also speculation in Peter Salway’s History of Roman Britain that Seneca had been involved in forcing large loans on the indigenous British aristocracy in the aftermath of Claudius’s Roman conquest of Britain, and then calling them in suddenly and aggressively. The suggestion is that this contributed to Boudica’s rebellion, and so possibly to his own fall.”

Seneca exercised great influence over Christian writers on morality and ethical conduct. “Seneca has been a source of moral precepts and examples, and especially of psychological descriptions on a higher level – in particular for Yves of Paris, Sebastian of Senlis, Senault Julian Hayneufve and Nicholas Caussin.”

Some of Seneca’s Literary Works

• Greek Tragedies: Medea, Phaedra,Thyestes, Hercules Furens, Troades. Phoenissae, Oedipus, Agamemnon (Tragedies II: Oedipus, Agamemnon, Thyestes, Hercules on Oeta, Octavia (Loeb Classical Library)), (Seneca: Phaedra (Duckworth Companions to Greek & Roman Tragedy))
• Natural Science: Natural Questions (Natural Questions (The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca))
• Moral Letters to Lucilius – Letters from a Stoic
• Dialogues and Essays (Oxford World’s Classics)
• Political Farce: The Pumpkinification of Claudius

Seneca’s tragedies were written to be read and not acted because of their ingenious rhetoric.

Works Cited/Referenced

Encyclopedia of World Biography

Encyclopedia of Philosphy

New Catholic Encyclopedia

Science and Its Times

Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Greece and Rome (1200 BCE – 476 CE)

Encyclopaedia Judaica

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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Why The Railway Children by E. Nesbit Matters Today

Though The Railway Children is a children’s book, it’s a perfect demonstration of why a safety net is so important. In the story, you have a father who is taken away, and we learn he is arrested for being a spy, which is a false accusation. The loss of income of the primary breadwinner forces the family into poverty. Today, with the economy still in a downturn, many people are only a pay cheque away from financial devastation. This tells us, that in the good times, no matter how little we earn, we should put away some of the money for ourselves, for the rainy days that will inevitably come.

The Railway Children (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In The Railway Children by E. Nesbit, Roberta, Phyllis and Peter are living idyllic lives with their parents in what is described as an “ordinary red-brick fronted villa, coloured glass in the front door, a tiled passage that was called a hall, a bathroom with and cold water, electric bells, French windows, and a good deal of white paint, and ‘every modern convenience,’ as the house agents say.”

The children are well-loved, and their parents make time to play with them. While they are at school, their mother writes stories and reads them to the children during tea time. And as a special treat, for their birthdays, she writes special poems for them. One day, two men come to visit their father and he leaves with them. The mother is quite upset, and tells the children not to ask questions. Shortly after the father leaves, the mother and children have to move out from suburbia into the country because their social and financial status has radically changed. And they take only the things that will be useful to them in their new life.

The mother is forced to work to take care of her family, and she does what she knows to do, which is to write children’s stories, and she has some success. Like any writer, there are times when her work is rejected and there are other times when a magazine publisher accepts the stories. In those times, the children get a special treat of buns.

The children are very aware that their situation has changed, but it doesn’t bother them that much – children are very resilient, and they are more intelligent and understanding that most adults give them credit for. The mother often emphasizes to the children that they are now poor. In The Railway Children, even among the poor, a class structure exists because there are different levels of poverty. For instance, their housekeeper, Mrs Viney, is much poorer than they are.

The three children no longer go to school, and to while the time away, they spend a lot of time exploring their new surroundings. Roberta, Peter and Phyllis love to visit the railway. While exploring they see a coal mine. At their new home, they no longer have ‘every modern convenience.’ Their home is no longer as warm as they are accustomed to, and mother doesn’t earn enough to buy the amount of coal needed. While the children explore the railway yard, Peter notices a lot of coal, and he makes up these rules as to what constitutes stealing. He comes up with idea of taking some of the coal, but he doesn’t want to get his sisters involved in taking it. They help him to transport the coal with the aid of a wheelbarrow up the hill to their home.

One day, Peter sneaks out, not knowing that Roberta and Phyllis are following him. When he gets to the coal mine, the station manager grabs him with the intention of reporting him. The children plead for mercy, and when the station manager learns why they are stealing, he lets him go free and tells him not to steal anymore coal. Even though Peter had tried to convince himself that taking the coal wasn’t stealing, deep down he knows the difference between right and wrong.

Because of the encounter with the station master, they want to stay away, but they cannot help themselves – they cannot keep away. In no time they learn the schedule for the arrival of the trains to the station which is close by, and they give the trains names like Green Dragon, Worm of Wantley and Fearsome Fly-by-Night. They make sure that they are close by when, Green Dragon, the 9:15 am train is passing by and they wave to the passengers, and out of first class, the hand of an older man waves back. This becomes a routine for the children.

As the story unfolds, you learn a lot about the characters. The three children are wise beyond their years, especially Roberta. And they are more resilient and stronger than their mother. The children go out into their new community and make friends, and learn about others, while the mother is wrapped up into their new circumstance. She is focused on earning money and doesn’t play with them as much as she used to. Because the children reach out to others with friendship, people in the community are kind to them.

One day the mother contracts influenza and the doctor prescribes a variety of things to help her recover. The mother decides which ones to buy because of her restricted budget. She is also very concerned about how she is going to pay for the doctor’s services. Roberta had heard Mrs Viney talking about a club that the doctor has, which enables the poorest people to afford his services. Roberta pays him a visit and asks that they be a part of the club, and he complies, even if he has to make a brand new club for them. The doctor is also poor, and he was excited that he had found a new patient. However, he is a man of compassion, and opens up the club to them. Roberta does this without her mother’s knowledge.

The children decide to take matters into their own hands to get the medicine needed for their mother to recover so they write a note to the old gentleman who always waves back to them. They write the letter and make their request, but they make it very clear that it’s an IOU and they ask him to give the package to the station manager and tell him it’s for Peter since they do not know which return train he will be on. When the 9:15 am train pulls into the station, Phyllis hands the note to the old gentleman.

At six pm in the evening there is a knock on their door, and it’s the friendly porter from the station with a package from the older gentleman. The children know that at some point they have to tell their mother what they have done, but decide to do so after she has recovered. Mother is angry because she does not want handouts, and she doesn’t want anyone feeling sorry for her and her family.

One day when the children go to the railway station there is a commotion, so they have to investigate. There is a distressed man there who doesn’t speak English and no one can figure out what language he is speaking. The station master suggests that the man is speaking French, but Peter knows it isn’t French because they used to study it at their school. In very bad French, “Parlay voo Frongsay” (Parlez-vous Francais), Peter asks the stranger if he speaks French, and he responds in French. Peter lets the station manager know that his mother speaks French. It so happens that on that day the mother had taken a trip, more than likely to visit her husband. In her limited French, Roberta tells the stranger that her mother speaks French.

When mother arrives, they take her to the stranger and in conversation they find out that he is Russian, has lost his train ticket and is ill. The stranger is a writer, and has written beautiful books, many of which mother has read. They take him home with them, and Roberta goes to fetch the doctor. Mother gives the stranger one of her husband’s outfit, and Roberta asks her mother if her father is dead and is told no.

As the stranger grows stronger, they learn more about his life. He was imprisoned because of his beliefs and what he writes about. He was enlisted into the army and deserted when it was safe and came to England. He knows his family is somewhere in England but doesn’t where. Mother writes many letters to Members of Parliament, editors of newspapers but cannot get any word on the stranger’s family.

One day while out exploring there is a bit of what appears to be a minor earthquake. Stones and trees and you name it, fall across the tracks shortly before the 3:15 train is to arrive. The children know the dangers and acted quickly. Using the girl’s red petticoats they make a flag to signal the train to stop, and they end up preventing a train crash. The children are honored for what they did, but that’s not why they did it. They have learned to be of service, to think of others, despite their changed circumstances. This plays out many times in The Railway Children.

The old gentleman is at the ceremony for their valour, and after the presentation, he and Roberta have a conversation. She tells him about the Russian stranger, Mr. Szezcpansk. The old gentleman knows people within the Russian community in London and promises Roberta that he will make some inquiries. A short while later, the old gentleman, finds out where Mr Szezcpansk’s family is, and the stranger reunites with them.

There are many tales in the book about the goodness of the children, the way that they make the lives of others much brighter. They teach the people in the community how to be a true community through their selfless actions. The old gentleman has also experienced their goodness when they rescue his grandson.

Roberta discovers from an old newspaper article that her father was arrested and he is in prison. She goes to her mother and they have an honest conversation. It’s difficult to believe that she is only 12 years old. Once again she goes to her friend, the older gentleman, to talk to him. He knows of the case and had the intention of helping, now he has a reason to, because he knows the three children, and the impact the arrest has had on their lives. He also believes in the father’s innocence.

The family is reunited. The Railway Children is a story of hope, and some of the big lessons it teaches us are:

1. The good you do for others come back to you.
2. The world is bigger than you. Life is more than about us.
3. When going through a rough patch, do something good for another.
4. Community is important. By lifting up others we lift up everyone.
5. Build a safety net.

I recommend The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Additional Information

The Railway Children Part 1 HD

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The Railway Children Part 2 HD

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The Railway Children Part 3 HD

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The Railway Children
Theatre Review: The Railway Children

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