I’ve been mentoring students at Chief Sealth High School going on my third year. Every year starts off with what Community For Youth (the sponsoring organization for the mentorship program) calls the launch course
. For freshman and first year mentors, it’s a 3½ day retreat on the grounds of a summer camp, away from the city. One of the activities we did that first year was to run a mile every morning. A few of the students were athletes, but most were not. Running a mile was a big deal. Quite a few completed it in 8 to 10 minutes, and some took as long as 17. The catch was, everyone was rated on how much they improved over the 3 mornings. The first two days, the prospective mentors ran with the students, and we were to improve our times as well.
But the last day, the staff pulled us aside. We had a different task the final day. Rather than try to improve our own times, we were to help motivate the students to improve their times. We could do that however we chose. Some ran with students. Other stood along side and shouted encouragement. Being substantially older and substantially more out-of-shape, I could not keep up with any but the worst runners over the course of the mile. So I positioned myself about a quarter mile from the end and ran back with a student, pushing each to do better. Then I would return a way from the end again and complete the same portion of the course with another student. I don’t know if any of them did better with my encouragement and coaching than they would have without it, but several claimed it helped.
This all came to mind as I read C. S. Lewis’ The Horse And His Boy, the fifth book in the Chronicles of Narnia. Our main character is Shasta, a fair-haired fishermen’s apprentice in the land of the dark-skinned Calormenes, south of Narnia. One evening a Calormen noble spending the night offers Shasta’s master a sum to take Shasta as his servant. Visions of riches in his head, the fisherman readily agrees. However, Shasta overhears the conversation and becomes distraight.
Outside in the stables where Shasta is sleeping that night (being summarily kicked out for the night so the noble can sleep indoors), the noble’s horse unexpectedly talks to Shasta. Bree is a Narnian horse, a Talking Horse, unbeknownst to his owner. Of course, he should be a free Narnian horse rather than a war horse for a Calormen. Seeing an opportunity, he and Shasta hatch an escape plan to return to Narnia, where Shasta is likely from as well, seeing as his skin-color doesn’t match that of his Calormen neighbors.
And so they escape during the night, and begin a long journey to Narnia through Tashbaan (the capital of Calormen) and Archenland, the Narnia-friendly country on the border between the Calormen empire and the land of fauns and Talking Beasts to the north. Along the way, they pick up a similarly escaping Hwin (another Talking Horse trapped in the south) and her rider, Aravis. While not Narnian, Aravis does not wish to be married off to an elderly noble, running away to the North herself to escape. In Tashbaan, the travelers learn of a planned Calormen invasion of Narnia, and their journey becomes doubly important as they must warn their desired home of the danger. Will they beat the invading force to the fortresses of Archenland and Narnia?
The God-analogue in Narnia, the lion Aslan, makes his expected appearance in this tale. Several times in fact. At several points, Shasta and his companions hear the lion’s roar behind them. Not knowing the legend of Aslan, nor even if they had would they think to connect it with their pursuer, they simply believe a wild beast has given chase and will devour them if they falter.
Anyway, I thought of the morning run in the launch course as I read this book.
Title: The horse and his boy
Author: C. S. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis)
Cover artist: Roger Hane
Illustrator: Pauline Baynes
Series: The chronicles of Narnia ; 5
Imprint / publisher: Collier / Macmillan
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 217 p.
Publication date: 1970
ISBN-10: 0-02-044200-9
