Author's Mom Taught Him Lessons of Peace

Author Torrey Maldonado has a gift for finding hope in dark situations. That gift stems from his own life growing up in a neighborhood where drugs and crime were everywhere - and in a home where he witnessed his mother become a victim of domestic abuse. Through it all, his beloved mom served as a beacon of light and font of wisdom so that he would choose a better path than some of the people around him. And Torrey has done exactly that through his writing career, penning short novels for tweens and teens that speak to their real lives.

Several years ago, Torrey earned a Christopher Award for his book Tight, and this year he won his second Christopher Award for the semi-autobiographical novel Hands, about a 12-year-old boy named Trevor who is torn between using his hands to create art or using them to fight his abusive stepfather, who is soon being released from prison.

Torrey explained to me, "Like Trevor, I like to draw. Trevor is an amazing illustrator. . . . That's where his light is. But he's gotten messages that young people get throughout the ages: if someone hits you, you better hit them back. He's trying to decide: is he going to use his hands to build and create and elevate - or is he going to use his hands to knock down and destroy?"

Trevor's mother in the book, like Torrey's mother in real life, is a proponent of the former. She wants him to use his hands to develop his artistic gifts and build a good life and career for himself. At the same time, Trevor's reasons for wanting to fight his stepfather are reasonable and justified. He simply wants to defend his mother. She, however, realizes that succumbing to an impulse towards violence can lead to unintended consequences, especially for a 12-year-old. She shared with him the famous quote, "An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind."

"Trev doesn't realize that by him trying to seek revenge . . . violence is going to beget violence," Torrey observed. "He has a pure heart and pure intentions in learning how to use his hands, because he wants . . . to defend his family. . . . However, he doesn't realize that the sword is a double-edged sword. So, it's hard for him to follow another piece of advice . . . implicitly set inside Hands, but it's not explicitly stated. It was explicitly stated to me. My mom loved the Bible quote, 'If a man hits one cheek, you turn your cheek and you give him the other cheek.' Meaning, don't give into your anger, don't give into your rage because violence will beget violence. Instead, try to be humble because the meek shall inherit."

Torrey believes his books exemplify the Christopher motto, "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." He also discovered another unexpected connection when he won his first Christopher Award for Tight. Throughout his childhood, his mom had a copper image in a silver frame hanging on the wall of their home. It featured a man hunched over carrying a child on his shoulders. That was St. Christopher carrying the child Jesus. Fast forward to many years later when Torrey received his first Christopher Award: "When I saw the award," he recalled, "my jaw dropped because the image on the award was the exact same image that I had seen growing up my whole life. . . . It's fascinating that my mom had planted the image of St. Christopher in my head long before you planted the Christopher Award in my hand."

This essay is a recent "Light One Candle" column by Tony Rossi, Director of Communications, The Christophers; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.

Background information:

The Christophers