How a snowflake helps put an end to war

By Carolyn Sloan

Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

In Geoff Butler’s modern fable, millions of snowflakes from around the world unite to bring peace to a place of warfare and a people who have become disconnected from their own humanity. “With Every Breath We Take: a modern fable in which a snowflake helps put an end to war,” is Butler’s seventh book as an illustrator and sixth book as a writer of children’s stories as well as adult literature. This Friday, May 11, he will be holding a book launch at ARTsPLACE to introduce the story to his community.

The book is inspired by the true story of the Christmas truce of World War One, when, during the first Christmas of the war, German and British troops stationed on the Western Front came out of the trenches to exchange gifts, sing carols, and play a game of soccer together. “It’s just a total contrast,” says Butler. “You’re fighting somebody one day, and the next day, you’re arm and arm getting a photograph of yourselves taken.”

In his story, a grandmother, fed up with the ongoing warfare that has consumed her homeland, crochets a snowflake named Flaky, which she brings to life with a kiss. Given a mission to bring about peace, Flaky enlists the help of snowflakes worldwide, including those present at the Christmas truce, to remind the people of the city of the goodwill and joy that has long been forgotten.

With a great deal of humour and affection for the character, Butler depicts his heroine as an example of an individual who is not afraid to be the one voice of dissent in a culture that has become desensitized and even infatuated with war. “We often ask what one person can do,” says Butler. “I tend to value individualism, and certainly, with mass manipulation of people, right, with warfare, the individual tends to get lost – not just warfare, but any number of things where the masses are herded in some way or other.”

It is also the grandmother’s imagination that allows her to find a way of achieving peace. Butler says that imagination is just as important in the real world when it comes to seeing possibilities beyond what can be realized when the world is painted in black and white. “It can have real effects, as opposed to just being an artistic ploy or anything,” he explains. “Imagination, I guess, raises all sorts of possibilities… Maybe before living our lives according to certain rules, and we’re absolutely certain that’s the way it should be – maybe not. “There’s a lot more greys than we think. I tend to see more greys now than black and white.”

The book launch of “With Every Breath We Take,” begins at 7 p.m. on May 11 at ARTsPLACE, located at 396 St. George St., Annapolis Royal. For more information, call 532-7069.