On the road with a donkey for a friend
Loading...
鈥淎fter you鈥檝e had an encounter with a donkey on a walking tour, had real contact with one, you鈥檙e never the same,鈥� a donkey enthusiast assures Andy Merrifield. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e somehow touched forever.鈥�
It must be true. From the hapless Sancho in 鈥�Don Quixote鈥� to Robert Louis Stevenson鈥檚 鈥淭ravels with a Donkey in the C茅vennes鈥� to Kevin O鈥橦ara (a Vietnam vet who, in 鈥淟ast of the Donkey Pilgrims,鈥� walked around Ireland with a donkey to ease painful war memories), there is a surprising amount of literary precedent for transformative trips with donkeys.
There seems to be something healing about the patient, friendly creatures. Perhaps the magic lies in their eyes. 鈥淭wo small worlds of noble sentiment,鈥� Merrifield calls them in The Wisdom of Donkeys, the story of his own trip alongside a donkey through rural France. In a donkey鈥檚 eyes Merrifield finds 鈥渁 touching sadness, a grace ... a purity that ... has no right to exist in the human world.鈥�
Or maybe it鈥檚 the comfort of rubbing 鈥渢he fluffy warm forehead of an animal so peaceably soft and placid, so gentle and so trusting.鈥�
Wherever the balm lies, Merrifield was hungry for it after a few bruising years of life in Manhattan. Born in Liverpool, England, Merrifield long dreamed of New York. Finally, as a professor specializing in urban studies, he got his chance to live there. But somehow his dream turned sour, leading him to renounce both cities and academics.
And so he finds himself walking through 鈥渢iny hamlets made up of stone cottages, abandoned barns, the odd menacing dog, and clucking hens,鈥� through a landscape of 鈥渃hamomile mixed with wild lemon thyme,鈥� in the company of Gribouille (from the French gribouiller, to scribble), a 鈥渂ig chocolate-colored donkey with a white muzzle and a red halter.鈥�
Merrifield never tells us exactly what went wrong in New York. And although he uses real place names to chart his journey, he offers no time frame. So he and Gribouille rock on in what seems more a dreamy meditation than a travelogue.
No matter. Wherever they are, it鈥檚 a lovely place to be. Merrifield makes us feel the heat and dust of the road as well as the gentle breath of Gribouille on his shoulder as they walk. The pace is slow and Gribouille is furry, silent, and endlessly comforting. Whatever the ills of this world, it somehow begins to seem credible that a donkey can wash them away.
