More Compassion

Elizabeth Coatsworth (author)
Lynd Ward (illustrator)
The Cat Who Went to Heaven
MacMillan, 1958 (1st edition, 1930)

Elizabeth Coatsworth's tale of an old Japanese painter, his elderly housekeeper, and their sensitive cat, Good Fortune, is one of the most beautiful and deeply satisfying children's books I've read. Poor as they are, each member of this modest family demonstrates sincere concern for the others. After Good Fortune joins the household, a Buddhist priest comes to commission a painting on the subject of the death of Buddha. Over several days, the painter meditates, imagining himself as the Buddha, living a life of extraordinary privilege followed by strenuous seeking and finally awakening and teaching before expiring. Only after experiencing as fully as possible his subject, does the painter begin his artwork. In succeeding days, he imagines himself as the animals who come to witness Buddha's passage into nothingness. Again, the painter imagines himself as each creature before setting brush to silk. With each imagining, we are transported sympathetically into the world of sentient animals. At last, out of compassion for his dear cat Good Fortune, the painter adds the feline's image to the painting, going against tradition. When the priest sees the completed painting, he reacts with intense dissatisfaction. But ultimately, the painter's compassion is rewarded.

Coatsworth's writing, both poems in the housekeeper's voice and prose, is finely crafted, precise and loving. Here is a short excerpt: "He [the painter] thought of the fierceness and cruelty of tigers, he imagined them lying in the striped shadows of the jungle, with their eyes of fire. They were the danger by the water hole; the killers among the reeds." But soon, the painter sees a way to compassion for the beast. "It may be that this [the tiger's devotion to its cub] is the narrow pathway by which the tiger reaches to the Buddha. It may be that there is a fierceness in love, and love in fierceness." [51] Insights such as these abound in Coatsworth's wise and elegant words.