Compassion, Spring 2024

6 tcf.org.uk I stumbled across a podcast of Andy Coulson interviewing the financier and environmentalist Ben Goldsmith on his "Crisis What Crisis'' series of podcasts. I listened while driving and couldn't stop crying, as his loss and our loss were very similar, both being sudden and unexpected, so his description of those events and his emotions were so very similar to my own: I guess I was reliving it emotionally while I listened. In fact it could have been me speaking, as he described how he felt from the moment that he tragically lost his daughter, and through the subsequent weeks and months. I had to stop the car to listen to the rest of the podcast, and immediately decided that I needed to read his book "God is an Octopus”. In this book Ben tells the story of the loss of his daughter Iris, and then his subsequent search to find answers and in particular to find a way of keeping Iris alive. Like me, Ben couldn't accept that his child had gone, physically and spiritually, as this is just too devastating an acceptance, so he set out on a journey of discovery, reaching the conclusion that Iris was very much still here, giving him comfort to live the rest of his life "with Iris". Before Ben lost his daughter in 2019 he was an activist and promoter of environmental projects, and particularly rewilding. Since losing Iris he continues to do this but with a new sense of connection to her through this work. I loved this book. It may not be as relevant to other parents as it was to me but it is an easy read for everyone and gives a specific way to find comfort in nature as a way for parents to feel close to their child, and to look at the natural world being entwined with our lives and souls. Ben doesn't give any answers for us in his book but he does share his way to remain close to Iris, in a way that is good for the planet too. Much of the book explains his rewilding projects, and the projects of others, but he continues to include his daughter throughout the book, and finishes each chapter with a mention of her, which I particularly liked. Ben explains what most of us feel, and certainly how I feel in the following quote. "I've come to grasp that learning to accept something so terrible as the loss of your child is difficult without any hope of a grander scheme of some kind beyond the reaches of our comprehension". Whether or not getting closer to nature, and helping to encourage nature, or just marvelling at its beauty and immenseness helps us to move forward from the loss of a child, it is definitely good for our souls, and helping to sustain and grow new life in the natural world is something positive when a life has been tragically lost too soon. Chris goes on to write, “I wrote this back in October, on the second anniversary of Michael's death, which seems very relevant to this book review: The morning of the second anniversary of losing our dear son Michael. I couldn’t sleep, COMPASSION | BOOK REVIEWS Book Reviews God is an Octopus by Ben Goldsmith reviewed by Chris Read