This has been a busy week!
Well, they’re all busy, aren’t they? I’ve never liked using “being busy” as an excuse for falling behind in something, but that doesn’t stop me from doing so.
Still, it has been a busy week.
At this point, I’m just waiting for the week to end, as we’ve got a marathon of holiday activities planned for the weekend, including attending a holiday parade, a craft fair, a ballet, and a live performance of Mary Poppins, for which we’re skipping a potluck.
So it’s going to be a busy weekend, too.
I beg your pardon for not going too introspective or “themey” with today’s post. As happened with my spider/Internet post from yesterday, today’s image and the text weren’t planned to marry together—but unlike yesterday’s post, I’m not having a last-minute realization of a connection, no matter how slim or subtle.
My doodle today came from a conversation I had with my firstborn, when she was about 4 years old. I walked in to hear her declare to me: “Mom’s evil.”
I froze.
“Oh,” I said. “Tell me more about that.”
“I’m evil, too,” she said.
I didn’t know quite how to respond to this one. While I fumbled for the best way to continue this conversation, she added: “So, we’re the stepsisters. You can be the prince.”
Aha. Cinderella. This shows why it’s generally a good idea to wait after a kid says something startling, as opposed to knee-jerk reacting with something crafted from an adult’s logical and often cynical/world-weary frame of mind.
On a side note, I’ve traditionally heard those stepsisters described as “ugly”—which may not be fair, but it is tradition—but I suppose “evil” applies, too.
My girls have showed an increased interest in classic fairy tales lately, which delights me. My 4-year-old specifically requested “The Three Little Pigs” and “Little Red Riding Hood” for bedtime stories last night, and I’m so glad. These stories are some of the foundational building blocks for, well, storytelling, which is a subject very near and dear to my heart.
I’m a professional journalist, pretty much because it’s one of the best way to frequently and regularly get stories out to the masses. It’s why I fell in love with this line from The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: “The story tellers, gathering attention into their tales, spoke in great rhythms, spoke in great words because the tales were great, and the listeners became great through them.”
I could just sigh at that line all day.
But I don’t have time for that. Sorry. In fact, I don’t really have time for this post any more!
What are some of your favorite stories? Or—to get meta on you—your favorite thoughts/words/quotes/ideas/stories about stories?
Standing in the Shallows 
Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon is kind of a whole novel about the power of storytelling. I love it for that and many more reasons. My least favorite story is the one I tell myself about how everything is going to turn out catastrophically.
When I was about 7 years old, my dad came into my room one night to put me to bed, and rather than letting me pick out another Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, or Dr. Seuss book for him to read to me, he suggested several books. “I have a proposition,” he began. “What’s that, dad?” “It’s like…a proposal, an idea.” “Oh,” I replied. “I would like to read to you some of the books I really enjoyed when I wasn’t too much older than you.” It was an excuse for more time with my dad, and I could see how his face lit up when he suggested this to me, so I agreed. We picked out a book together, and in the years that followed, he read to me almost every evening until before long, I found myself picking up books on my own. Together, my dad and I read Watership Down, Kon Tiki, The Hobbit, Endurance, and others. It was exciting, being wrapped up in his story telling voice. On the evenings I had to put my little brother to bed, I experimented with some of the things my dad did for me. I read Fox in Sox in the most animated way I could until that little 5 year old was practically crying from laughter and begging for more. I took the liberty of making up stories, stories I wish I’d written down, because I’d probably a great author of children’s books by now. Stories and words, they are fueled by the power of the imagination, they can draw a father and a child together through the adventure the characters in the books experience, and they can be a fantastical creative outlet.
When I was in Junior high I stumbled across John Steinbeck and devoured almost every single one of his books except Grapes of Wrath, surprisingly…your post made me think about how I never read that one…I may go back and do that now 🙂
that was how Tolkien started … telling his children about his fantastic world.
I had no idea. That’s really cool! Thanks for sharing! Love your writing. I’m going to click “follow” 🙂
Thank you – hope you are not disappointed I am blogging in german 😉
Google translate is perfectly acceptable! 🙂
“Life’s like a movie, write your own ending.
Keep believing, keep pretending.”
~Kermit the frog in a story about storytelling.