Betty had forgotten how you only get slivers of stories from children - usually what they echo from overheard adult conversations.
Molly RingwaldA Swedish minister having assembled the chiefs of the Susquehanna Indians, made a sermon to them, acquainting them with the principal historical facts on which our religion is founded — such as the fall of our first parents by eating an apple, the coming of Christ to repair the mischief, his miracles and suffering, etc. When he had finished an Indian orator stood up to thank him.
‘What you have told us,’ says he, ‘is all very good. It is indeed bad to eat apples. It is better to make them all into cider. We are much obliged by your kindness in coming so far to tell us those things which you have heard from your mothers. In return, I will tell you some of those we have heard from ours.
‘In the beginning, our fathers had only the flesh of animals to subsist on, and if their hunting was unsuccessful they were starving. Two of our young hunters, having killed a deer, made a fire in the woods to boil some parts of it. When they were about to satisfy their hunger, they beheld a beautiful young woman descend from the clouds and seat herself on that hill which you see yonder among the Blue Mountains.
‘They said to each other, “It is a spirit that perhaps has smelt our broiling venison and wishes to eat of it; let us offer some to her.” They presented her with the tongue; she was pleased with the taste of it and said: “Your kindness shall be rewarded; come to this place after thirteen moons, and you will find something that will be of great benefit in nourishing you and your children to the latest generations.” They did so, and to their surprise found plants they had never seen before, but which from that ancient time have been constantly cultivated among us to our great advantage. Where her right hand had touched the ground they found maize; where her left had touched it they found kidney-beans; and where her backside had sat on it they found tobacco.’
The good missionary, disgusted with this idle tale, said: ‘What I delivered to you were sacred truths; but what you tell me is mere fable, fiction, and falsehood.’
The Indian, offended, replied: ‘My brother, it seems your friends have not done you justice in your education; they have not well instructed you in the rules of common civility. You saw that we, who understand and practise those rules, believed all your stories; why do you refuse to believe ours?
Tags: education stories fantasy falsehood myths courtesy indians native-americans swedish fable proselytizing origins creation-myths orator maize
God doesn’t put that much prep into something that is insignificant.
Shannon L. AlderTags: friends future love family stories signs growth illness providence skill talents significant meetings trials process journeys fates storms situations insignificant no-coincidences god-s-plan trajedy years-of-struggle aquaintances people-in-your-life people-you-met
There wasn't a place I could think of that was more magical than a building bursting with books and stories and words...
Lindsay ElandTags: libraries reading books stories
Every individual is an author in himself. It is only that he falls short of words to express; list of stories.
Aniruddha SastikarTags: words stories story individual author express expressions
We are all joined in a circle of stories.
Linda Joy MyersTags: stories story we circle joined
[On famous Nobel Laureate Niels Bohr]
[Niels] Bohr's sort of humor, use of parables and stories, tolerance, dependence on family, feelings of indebtedness, obligation, and guilt, and his sense of responsibility for science, community, and, ultimately, humankind in general, are common traits of the Jewish intellectual. So too is a well-fortified atheism. Bohr ended with no religious belief and a dislike of all religions that claimed to base their teachings on revelations.
Tags: humor science family stories atheism atheist responsibility teaching tolerance revelation community intellectual jewish humankind jew parables niels-bohr dislike-of-religion obligation-guilt
There are some themes, some subjects, too large for adult fiction; they can only be dealt with adequately in a children's book.
The reason for that is that in adult literary fiction, stories are there on sufferance. Other things are felt to be more important: technique, style, literary knowingness. Adult writers who deal in straightforward stories find themselves sidelined into a genre such as crime or science fiction, where no one expects literary craftsmanship.
But stories are vital. Stories never fail us because, as Isaac Bashevis Singer says, "events never grow stale." There's more wisdom in a story than in volumes of philosophy. And by a story I mean not only Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk but also the great novels of the nineteenth century, Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, Bleak House and many others: novels where the story is at the center of the writer's attention, where the plot actually matters. The present-day would-be George Eliots take up their stories as if with a pair of tongs. They're embarrassed by them. If they could write novels without stories in them, they would. Sometimes they do.
But what characterizes the best of children's authors is that they're not embarrassed to tell stories. They know how important stories are, and they know, too, that if you start telling a story you've got to carry on till you get to the end. And you can't provide two ends, either, and invite the reader to choose between them. Or as in a highly praised recent adult novel I'm about to stop reading, three different beginnings. In a book for children you can't put the plot on hold while you cut artistic capers for the amusement of your sophisticated readers, because, thank God, your readers are not sophisticated. They've got more important things in mind than your dazzling skill with wordplay. They want to know what happens next.
Run your purpose on the toes of your feet before people can type your success stories with the fingers of their hands.
Israelmore AyivorTags: success purpose people stories story feet actions run hands food-for-thought make-a-difference act palm achieve you-can-do-it type do-it fingers succeed finger sole toes israelmore-ayivor make-an-impact you-can toe initiatives foot-hand make-hey success-stories
Intelligence is not expecting people to understand what your intent is; it is anticipating how it will be perceived.
Shannon L. AlderTags: wisdom life intelligence happiness love philosophy integrity soul stories communication religion evolution authors actions novels wise games scholars choices confusion misunderstandings letting-go noble intent helpful parables wars walking-away clarification true-self direct fights retreating mixed-signals being-direct not-helpful reading-between-the-lines right-reasons
« first previous
Page 52 of 53.
next last »
Data privacy
Imprint
Contact
Diese Website verwendet Cookies, um Ihnen die bestmögliche Funktionalität bieten zu können.