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Click to see original text from the Thurber House newsletter

This is a toast I wrote for a reception at Thurber House in June of 1995, when The Ohio State University awarded a posthumous, honorary degree to James Thurber. I was one of four local journalists who spoke at the event:

The first book I ever read by James Thurber was a children’s story called The Wonderful O. It tells the tale of an island named “Ooroo,” full of modest people, ruthlessly overtaken by a pirate dictator who strips the letter “O” from their lives. (He has a grudge against “O” since he had to push his mother out of a ship’s porthole because he couldn’t pull her in.)

The people of the island meet in secrecy in the woods at night, where they decide that while they can lose “violins,” “chocolate,” “Mother Goose,” and even “poodles,” they can’t lose the words “love,” “hope” or “valor.” And in the end, they rediscover a “gleaming and flowing and shimmering” word which ultimately liberates them from their O-less world. The word they find is “freedom.”

Until recently, I didn’t know that James Thurber refused to accept an honorary degree (from OSU) because he knew that receiving it from an institution that would facilitate the persecution and censorship of artists, educators and thinkers was actually no honor. Now, in a time when our government clearly wants to put a moral magnifying glass on our artists, educators and thinkers again — this time with slicker packaging — Thurber’s love of the word “freedom” he so beautifully expressed in that fairy tale is the part of his legacy that we need to remember most. To truly honor him on this day, and the reception of his long-overdue degree, we should celebrate the continuation of his spirit of resistance, integrity and wit.

So here’s to James Thurber and the wonderful letter “O” found in the words “dog,” “love,” “hope” “valor,” “humor” and “freedom.”