Mr Bump

A mystery artist has painted dozens of pictures of Mr Bump around Sea Mills, Bristol. Pictures have been spotted on signage boards, tree stumps, rubbish bins, under bridges…

Bristol’s the home city of graffiti artist Banksy; the mystery artist has been dubbed ‘Bumpsy’.

In the old Roger Hargreaves book Mr Bump is clumsy and accident-prone. He accepts his weaknesses and the things he can’t do, remaining happy and resilient…

I had coffee with my policeman friend Chris yesterday. We discussed crime in Lowestoft. The police don’t refer to the ‘victims’ of crimes now. They talk about ‘survivors’.

It seems to me that innocent people subject to domestic abuse or burglary don’t deserve it… They’re victims…

However I like the emphasis on ‘survivors’. They won’t remain victims; they’re not defined by the crime; they’ll move on with Mr Bump-resilience.

Yesterday I read that our local Pakefield Primary School is celebrating a ‘Good’ Ofsted inspection with ‘Outstanding’ features.

The inspection team found the School to have ‘outstanding behaviour and attitudes’ and ‘outstanding personal development’, with ‘good quality of education’, ‘good leadership and management’ and ‘good early years provision’.

Four years ago it was rated as ‘Requires Improvement’… Mr Bump-resilience…

Headteacher, Martyn Payne, says: ‘I’m so proud of our achievements and feel privileged to be part of such a fantastic school.’

Musing on St Paul’s Mr Bump-resilience: ‘We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed…’

Another translation says: ‘…knocked down but not knocked out…’

Mr Bump doesn’t dwell on jobs he can’t do… He becomes an apple picker in Mr Barley’s apple orchard, wandering around the orchard and bumps into the trees, knocking apples off the trees that he catches.

I want to be like Mr Bump… not focusing on my failures… remaining cheerful and resilient … becoming a survivor and an achiever… working on what I can do, and doing it well.