Paddington arrived in England as a stowaway, hidden in a lifeboat, he arrived in England with nothing but marmalade, asking for a home, looking for a new life. Once he put his little paws on English soil, he linked Peru and Great Britain, two countries with not much in common according to history books, but that within Paddington will be forever united, just a marmalade sandwich.
I wonder what inspired Michael Bond to write such a magnificent story. A little bear crossing the oceans from darkest Peru. An immigrant looking for safety, not for economic benefits, but for a place to call home.
Maybe seeing, experiencing and surviving the horrors of the WWII broke him in such way that his only hope was to look inside his soul to rescue it from the darkness.
And little Michale Bond knew that the message Paddington takes with him will be most needed now. Now that the world is seeing the horrors and the indifference of humankind again, the monsters are as free to get back into power as they were in the WWII, ironically, the story is repeating itself. And those who proudly wave the nationalistic flag, are those who put the monsters back in power.
Michael Bond died on June, 27th at the ripe old age of 91, leaving in Paddington a legacy of love, generosity, and openness for posterity that will continue spreading light into darkness so that the monsters will go back to their hidden places, as Michael Bond might have wanted.
Yoneko: Writer and consultant 