Gary the Goose Belonged

There’s a pond near the authors’ West Ocean City, Maryland house where one morning they saw a goose limping, his one leg, twisted. Great gaggles of geese came and went daily on their autumn travels south, and try as he did, not one would allow this special goose to join their flock. For a time, he remained on the pond where his only friends were a duck and her ducklings. As we watched this special goose that we came to call, Gary, we couldn’t help but to note the similarities between his struggles to fit in and present-day discrimination issues where being different too often means being excluded. One morning, the ducks were gone, and a few days later so too was Gary. For two years we wondered whatever happened to him until one misty morning we heard a flock of geese overhead and then watched as they gracefully glided onto the pond. And as they came ashore, we saw a goose struggling to walk. It was Gary! He was back, and now, was just another member of the flock. We decided to write a children’s story about how inclusion champions exclusion; about a special goose who just wanted to fit in, and how, in the end, Gary the goose belonged. Read more