Through the eyes of a child

MANILA, Philippines - Complicated. Compromised. Convoluted.

This is how most adults view the world, a roller coaster of enigmatic pomposity. Yet, for Anna, the world is not so much a mystery or a set of intricate complexities as it is a means of understanding. For her, the world is simple, a direct representation of love, life and faith. Anna’s unique wisdom is the true story behind the book Mister God, This Is Anna, a story of an unusual friendship written by Sydney Hopkins under the pseudonym Fynn.

The book begins with Fynn relating how he first meets Anna. How he finds her sitting in a grail near a bakery shop located in the East End of London’s docks one cold November night when he is out roaming the streets. She was just four then, an abused child, a runaway, abandoned and with nowhere to go to.

She describes her parents as “a cow and a sod,” and her home “a bleeding cop shop.” The moment she says that she doesn’t have any intention to go back to her home, Fynn knows better — he takes her home to his mother and brother and the other runaways they have taken in — and adopts her. 

Indeed, Fynn knew better, because the moment he takes Anna in his care, his life takes an unexpected twist.

Fynn’s relationship with Anna accounts for a fascinating teaching and learning experience. Like any other child, Anna is the embodiment of curiosity. In her lives a very probing spirit — one that is ever inquisitive about the ways of the world and always in pursuit of rhyme and reason.

She has the biggest questions about life and loves exploring and marveling at everything. At some point every person is like that, but over time and in our adult lives it is outgrown and lost. As Fynn helps Anna learn by trying to answer her endless questions, the little girl’s perceptive train of thought helps him learn, too, reminding him — and the readers — of the inner child in us, and the magical joy the simplest of things may bring.

As Anna grows older, her hunger and delight for knowledge continue to grow as well. Her startling observations make way for the development of her ability to easily grasp patterns and associate them to a whole. She has an uncanny gift, and throughout the book, the activities she shares with Fynn introduce a different light at looking at things.  As Anna’s discoveries lead her to new understandings, the readers are led to new understandings, too, such as that approaching things from various angles and applying patterns can beget infinite possibilities.

Fynn’s descriptions of their encounters with the townspeople are wonderfully captured, and depictions of other local characters are notably vivid. William Papas makes the book even more alive with astounding illustrations of Anna, and her experiences. More conversations are shared, too, and more questions are raised, especially about Mister God.

As the title suggests, a good portion of the book talks about Anna’s special relationship with Mister God. Her ideas about Him are astonishingly insightful. For her, He is a being that goes beyond rules and religion. Her pride as well as faith in Him can never be compared to anyone else’s.

As Fynn puts it, “Anna was not only deeply in love with Mister God; she was proud of him. Whatever feelings people have had about Mister God over the many centuries, I’m very sure of one thing — nobody has ever liked Mister God more than Anna.”

Anna sees God in everything. Be it pollywogs, buses or flowers, God is everywhere. She says her prayer every night talking as if God was just beside her. She has the utmost love for Him.

Anna’s innocence is enlightenment to the very complexities of an adult life. At a very young age, she has a complete understanding of faith and love. She knows how to love people, and she knows that this love is different from the love that God gives us. At the age of six, she knows the depth and meaning there is to life. She knows exactly what her purpose is and fears nothing, not even death. At the age of seven, she is a theologian, a mathematician, a philosopher, a poet and a gardener. She is inquisitive and asks questions, but also has answers to the biggest questions there are about life.

Fynn states that there are times when her answer would be delayed, but that eventually, in her own good time they would come: “direct, simple, and much to the point.”

Yet despite all these wonders, Anna never makes eight years. She dies in an accident; she dies saving an animal that is stuck at the top of a tree. As Fynn recalls, “She died with a grin on her beautiful face. She died saying ‘I bet Mister God lets me get into heaven for this.’”

Even if Anna’s death is already told in the first two paragraphs of the book, it still stirs up a ghastly, shocking feeling not only for Fynn but for readers as well. Her death is upsetting yet also poignantly beautiful.

Anna’s life may be short-lived but it sure wasn’t short-filled because she was able to steal hearts. She continues to stay and touch lives.

For all the references to Mister God, this book is not preachy but rather spiritual and thought provoking. It is an enchanting invitation to find something amazing even in the most trivial of things, and find pleasure in the simplest of things.

It is an invitation to explore and question, and take the world as if for the first time. For sometimes, it takes a child’s eye to truly see that the world we often forget is there. Sometimes it takes a child’s eye to view the world as refreshingly simple, stripped of adult pretensions and illusions. 

Mister God, This Is Anna is an exact reminder that the world is not much of a mystery or an intricate complexity but that we have to see it through the eyes of a child.

THIS WEEK’S WINNER

Majella Rossette P. Balbido works as an English and science teacher in a public school in Manila. She is a graduate of the National Teachers College and is taking up her master’s degree from the same institution.