Books like The Twenty-One Balloons

One month after graduating from college, I started working. That was in 1984. I am now in my 4th company and except for my paid vacation leaves and rare sick days, I have never been, even a single day, out of the corporate rate race. 27 years of working and trying to earn a living.I know it is still far from the 40 years of being a math teacher in some high school for Professor William Waterman Sherman but once in a while, I also feel that I need to do something outrageous. Maybe just to break the monotony of my corporate work life. Not necessarily riding an air balloon because it is pricey here in the Philippines. During the Summer Hot Air Balloon Festival in Clark Pampanga, last time I heard, they offer a 30-min ride for P20,000 (~ US$450). I would not want my savings to go to waste, only for 30 mins! Professor Sherman had no family so he was able to afford two giant air (not hot air) balloons constructed to his taste after he retired at the age of 66. He left everything in San Francisco and embarked on the journey of going around the world via his giant air balloon via the Pacific Ocean. I wish I could do something like that. At some point in our lives, burnout comes in and we just want to break free. Leave everything behind and do the things that we really enjoy. Oh well, maybe that’s part of the reason why I try to do something that other people say is impossible: reading books included in the 1001 list. Books bring us to places whose nature sometimes goes beyond our imagination. In books, we also meet people who we never thought existed and know situations that could make us feel more fortunate and blessed. The Twenty-One Balloons won the Newberry Award in 1948. It is a sci-fi utopian children’s book by William Pene de Bois (1916-2993) an American-French illustrator and novelist. The writing is simple but its whimsical ingenuity is amazing. Some strange ideas look plausible like the Balloon Merry-Go-Round and I thought I would like to ride on it if the price will not be too prohibitive ha ha. The utopian kind of economic setup in Krakatoa is something that is possible too only if there is a diamond mine and families are not greedy enough to be disloyal to the island’s other family-inhabitants. Though the theme of loyalty permeates at least in a couple parts -the one I just mentioned and Sherman not obliging to persistent request to tell what happened to his voyage prior to his official interview in the explorers’ association where he is a member of good standing - of the story, overall, it is the dream of doing something totally new, e.g, drastic career shift?, at the latter part of one’s life that I consider my take-away from this wonderful book.