Independent Reading Blog: “Boy In The Moon” by Ian Brown

Independent Reading Blog: “Boy In The Moon” by Ian Brown

A) Comment on Ian Brown’s impressions of the L’Arche communities in Montreal and in France that he visits. (Chapters 11 and 12) Provide specific support by quoting the book directly.

Ian Brown opens Chapter eleven with saying, “As long as someone loves him every day” (184) than he goes on to say he is pondering about who will take care of Walker once him and his wife pass on. In the spring of 2008 he receives a letter from Jean-Louis Munn, the communications director of the Canadian branch of L’Arche. The letter asked to have a meeting in Montreal at the Verdun branch of L’Arche. When he arrives he sees that the a mass was being held in a church basement and he says, “L’Arche had been founded on Catholic precepts (Another reason I had avoided L’Arche as a possibility for Walker, though the organization has since widened its spiritual foundation)”(187) as he continues his tour he begins to realize that even though it was a mass, it wasn’t about the religious aspect but the togetherness of L’Arche and the caring community. Six weeks later Ian gets on a plane to meet Jean Vanier at the community of L’Arche in France. While Ian was visiting he prepared plenty of questions to ask Vanier; the answers he receives showed Vanier’s brilliant beliefs and ideas. Ian’s ideas change after the words of wisdom from Vanier and Ian goes on to say, “Vanier believed the disabled deserved a place of their own, that they often wanted to live apart from their families and parents if they could find a sufficiently supportive environment. That was n idea I thought I could get behind. He also insisted that the disabled were capable of teaching the able-bodied more than the able- bodied could ever teach them. If Vanier was right, I didn’t have to feel so bad about letting walker live his life at least to some degree on his own” (196) He then argues with Vanier that Walker should be treated as a human being not as a disabled human being. He also says Walker has the ability to teach everyone something about themselves but than goes on to say that, “Whether that will happen is another story” (Pg 211). In the end Ian agrees with Vanier’s vision, this is evident when he says, “I went to France because I wanted to see if there was a graceful meaningful way for Walker to live in this world… a community and family he might call his own, even- this was the most radical notion- a liberty and a freedom he could claim…. Walker’s life had some value. It seemed it did for me. Vanier said it did” (pg 226)


B) Describe what you have learned about life with a profoundly disabled child. How has Brown’s memoir altered/clarified your attitude?

Before I read Ian Brown’s “The Boy In The Moon ” I thought all a disabled child was having a life filled with sadness and burden. But after reading Brown’s memoir it changed my whole perspective on a disabled child in the family. Even though at times a disabled child can be a burden, but at the same time a disabled child can bring out the best of people and bring happiness. I would never have learned this eye opener about life with a disabled child without the help of his memoir. The memoir has made me value the life that I have more than I did before because Ian shown me the hardships of having a mental child in the family.
C) Provide three questions for Ian Brown.

1.) If you had known all the possibilities and what L’Arche had to offer at the beginning of Walker’s life do you think it would have changed the way you treated him and the way you thought about the value of his life?

2.) If Walker woke up this morning and was able to speak intelligently and was able to hold a steady conversation what would you talk to him about if you only had half an hour?

3.) Did you feel like you were depriving Walker of a chance to experience the world on his own all those years when you met with Mr. Vanier? Would you have gone back and made a change in the way you raised Walker if so?