Nothing more appropriate could have happened to me than to read Holy Cow by David Duchovny in a holiday time. Christmas and New Year are holidays when we remember our loved ones, everyone who has in any good way influenced us during the year or even a few years before.
But it is also a time when we easily forget those outside our field of vision, those we subconsciously push out of their existence. The hidden faces of holidays.
A happy cow Elise Bovary, a grumpy pig Shalom and a suave turkey Tom are the hidden faces of our holidays but true and hilariously funny characters of Duchovny's novel! (Yes, David Duchovny also knows to write beside being a great actor!) It is a story that makes us laugh and touches the emotional part of our brain, a story that takes us—in the spirit of its predecessors Charlotte's Web and Animal Farm—on an exciting journey from the United States all across the world to Turkey, Israel and finally India, when our three adorable protagonists escape from a farm to find a safe place where they won't be killed and eaten by humans.
Holy Cow is the perfect read for holy days because it carries an outstanding message of compassion, empathy and love to all the creatures. It reminds us of the unity and interconnectedness of the species, that we are all one, as Elsie concludes in her story:
You, me, the animals in the wild, the animal at your feet, the animal on your plate, the person next to you—
We are all one
We are all holy cows
Moo
Let's keep our fellow animals in our hearts instead on our plates! Happy holidays!
BJ