Penguin and Windsurfing

A fabulously formulated adventure in the life of Penguin, whose inimitable poetic style promises to entertain and instruct many a young reader. To say nothing of adults!

Picture by Jakub Zich

1. It is Saturday morning. The wind is blowing. Penguin says to his wife and little penguins: "I´m sorry. Today we cannot go to grandma and grandpa´s. The wind is blowing. We are going surfing."

2. The little penguins say: "But we want to go to grandma and grandpa´s!"
Penguin´s wife says: "Surely you can´t be serious! After all, you promised us. And the little penguins are so looking forward to it!"

3. Penguin says: "I´m terribly sorry about this. The forecasts said there wouldn´t be any wind but there is. We must go to the water!"

4. The little penguins pucker up their faces to cry. They say: "We don´t want to go to the water-r-r-r! We want to go to grandma and grandpa-a-a-a´s!"
Penguin´s wife says: "This is going to make me crazy! I´ll take the children and we´ll move to mother´s! You won´t get anywhere in life thinking and talking about nothing but windsurfing! You are devoting your life to that board! We don´t even exist for you!! You are so incredibly selfish!!!"

5. Penguin says: "In the first place: don´t scream at me here! In the second place: So, I´m selfish am I?! I, who does everything in order to provide for you?! So that we live well! So that you are lacking in nothing! So that we live with harmonious family relations!"

6. Like an officer, Penguin stalks in front of his family with his hands clasped behind his back as they stand whimpering in a row. He continues: "Do you think that I surf just for fun?! That it´s enormously fun for me when it´s so terribly cold all the time?! That it gives me some special pleasure to bicker with you and look at your long faces - no long faces! - every time I say we are going to the water?! I´ll tell you why I do all this. I´ll tell you."

7. Penguin falls silent. Then he says: "Windsurfing... is my M I S S I O N!"

Dear children,

Now write and tell us if Penguin was right. Did Penguin behave properly?

Yours,

Dr. Jenda Silhavy

Translation © Sam Triebs

Note for JM: substitute windsurfing for skiing and wind for powder ;-)

Note for children:

Dear children,
If you really insist on writing to us, well, write to:

Dr. Jenda Silhavy                                                       
Nám. Zachariase z Hradce 51                       
588 56 Telc
or by email to: [e-mail]

Considering the fact that I receive an enormous number of letters from all over the world every day, please, dear children, be maximally brief and speak to the point. Maybe it would really be better if not all of you answered the questions but if, for example, only each second or third or tenth child answered.
Thank you very much for your understanding,

Yours,

Dr. Jenda Silhavy