I still remember the day when, as an adult in my twenties, I was informed by a well-wisher that Aslan from The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe was really Jesus. As this was before my religious awakening, and I was quite the militant atheist at the time, I became rather irate at this revelation. How dare ‘they’ slip a moral message in amongst all that magic and wonder! Now, of course, I see that compared to the story of Christianity itself, a bunch of talking critters is very pedestrian stuff indeed.
Turn on the television, dip into a streaming service or drag yourself out to the cinema and there she is
Still, I was pleased that I was able to have a childlike stay of innocence rather than bear the burden of my favourite bedtime book being about radiant redemption and life eternal. Talking of bears (talking bears, at that) I feel sorry for kiddies today on quite a few grounds, but most of all because of Paddington.
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