The Wisdom of Donkeys: Finding Tranquility in a Chaotic World

This book is as good as it gets. It can only make one want to be more noble, light, frolicsome and improbably beautiful...If you have ever thought you were watched over by something you have never seen, something holy and yet humble you will wish it is a Donkey.This book will strike you to the heart and saturate you with simple joy. I am reminded of a quote by Mary Oliver from one of her poems entitled, "Swan": "Of course! the path to heaven doesn't lie down in flat miles. It's in the imagination with which you perceive this world, and the gestures with which you honor it". If you think you know, think again, read this book, and be afraid of nothing.

I loved this book. I feel the author is a soul mate, he gave up the rat race in New York and took a journey in France, on foot, with a wonderful donkey companion. It's a great book for an armchair traveler, anyone who loves aninals, and anyone who wants to share some thoughts with a like minded soul who is seeking peace and beauty in their life. And you get the added bonus of learning about donkeys. Highly recommended.

Merrifield sets out on a walking tour at a donkey's pace. He invites the reader along. And that's the point. Don't read this hurredly. But be prepared to reconsider life in the fast lane and to fantasize about time in the south of France. Merrifield quotes George Orwell's Benjamin -- "Donkeys live a long time; you've never seen a dead donkey," and it all makes so much sense.

This is one of those rare books you hope will never end, so full is it of warmth and humanity. Paradoxically, these virtues make it difficult to write about, because they are subjective and fuzzy round the edges. But I want to try, since I was wonderfully moved more than once in my bedtime reading. A simpler plot would be hard to imagine. The author takes a rented donkey on a walking journey through the byways of the Haute Auvergne region of southern France. As the two meander along tracks and paths, Andy Merrifield, a former Geography teacher in British and American universities and author of the biographies of two 20th century French philosophers, and Gribouille, his donkey, form a kind of symbiotic relationship (though it may be that Andy needs Gribouille more than Gribouille needs Andy). Throughout the story, the author makes reference to donkeys in literature, philosophy and religion, citing Cervantes, Spinoza, Anne Sexton, Schubert, Dostoyevsky, the Old Testament, the Koran and Aesop (among others), which provides a counterpoint to the journey that man and beast make together. But it's Andy's feelings for Gribouille that make the story, for me, so touching and rewarding. He finds in his donkey the values to which he aspires--of patience, of calm, of acceptance of suffering, of forbearance, and for therapy (making the point that animals such as donkeys can be used fruitfully in homes for the aged, or sick). There is great strength in the writing, unsentimental, romantic, perhaps, but, shining through, a calm smile of resignation at the folly of the world. This is a book I shall treasure, and return to.

This little volume offers forty meditations on a donkey, many often offered to a donkey, as the author on his walk through southern France has only the long ears of his donkey, Gribouille, to enchant. Merrifield sees the donkey as our double as well as the "nemesis of our frantic age." The author also notes the therapeutic properties of donkeys and the reverie they inspire as one waits for them to decide what's next. Guiding lights are Dostoevsky's Myshkin, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sancho Panza, Gaston Bachelard and Anne Sexton. Little stories about the author are woven together with stories of his donkey friend and of his readings, reflections and meetings with people who feel for donkeys. Some sweet pages tell of a donkey healer in Egypt who helps the rural farmers keep their helpmates as healthy as they can afford in the difficult circumstances they survive. Either donkeys are incredibly soulful, longsuffering companions on this earth or we humans are fabulously adept at overlooking our anthropomorphic idealizations in search of exemplary conduct. No matter the case, the result is a pretty one and very peaceful. The author now happily revels in the French countryside and reviles the former realities of his rat race life in New York City. This book is one of those whose itinerary and distances have only little relevance to the journey of a generous mind and meditative days spent with donkeys.