Boy in the Moon Reading Blog

Ian Brown’ first impression of L’Arche was a very interesting realization. It was “In that community, I was the stranger.” (187) He was quite nervous when entering the house in Verdun for the first time but it slowly began to grow on him. This is explained in a quote from page 194, “The remarkable thing about that house in Verdun was that the calm descended upon me again and again in a single evening. For a long time I didn’t want to leave.” However, his nervous attitude toward the community was something hard to shrug off. When visiting the L’Arche communities in Cuise-la-Motte and talking to the director Garry Webb he found the activities in the house in Semance “interesting, free, spirited, and made me extremely nervous.” (196) He had a slight skepticism towards the almost perfect atmosphere of the communities and thought “If Walker ever lived in such a place, would he be surrounded by people who cared for him for his own sake or by people who cared for him because they were in a cult? I didn’t want Walker in a cult.” (197) However, after several days in many of the communities he realized that “It was a pleasant place to be, and conveyed no sense that life ought to be otherwise.” (200)

When I visited L’Arche in Toronto it was very apparent that the place was a large family where everyone was free to be themselves and applauded for doing so. It was a very relaxed atmosphere in which it was hard not to smile at everyone around you. The community was very unique and it is clear that “No one at L’Arche talked about integration….this community existed for the disabled and made no pretense that residents eventually would be part of the “normal” community” as Ian Brown stated on page 199.

The most apparent thing I have learned about life with a profoundly disabled child is it is most definitely a full-time job. However, those who have to take on this responsibility would not refer to it as that. I can tell it is a great learning experience where there is a lot of giving involved but a lot given back. A child like this can give hope, but also stifle a parent’s life and become a burden at the same time. I can only say so much because I have only read the book and not experienced life with a disabled child.

My three questions include: If you could go back in time and have a child without a disability instead of Walker what would you do? What is one thing that you have learned from Walker that you think anyone could benefit from knowing? If there was one thing you could change about how you raised Walker, what would it be?