S is for Stories

Santa Claus isn't real. Neither is the Easter Bunny. Or the tooth fairy.

How old were you when you these things out? I can't remember how old I was, but I do remember feeling betrayed by the adults around me. I know my parents went out of their way to keep be believing in Santa one Christmas by having my older sister, who was in California at the time, write a letter to me from “Santa”. It took me a few months but then I saw another letter from my older sister and confronted my parents. They consistently denied it was from her but I knew. I knew and I was angry.

Stories have been passed down through the generations, first orally and as people became more literate through the written word. Even now there are people who pass their stories along orally because it's how they've always done it. Or they aren't a people literate in the sense of the world that we know.

Myths were used to explain the world. Long before they were written by the Greek and Roman scholars, they were whispered over fires or proclaimed at religious celebrations. The gods took on lives and personalities based on those who told the stories, which later became the basis for the written ones.

Stories have always played an important part in my life. First, they were a way to escape my mother. Then they became a way for me to tell what I held in my imagination. They still are. I love telling stories. I enjoy seeing people's reactions when I spin another tale from my world.

The stories that have stuck with me the longest are the Pern stories by Anne McCaffrey, the Witch World stories by Andre Norton, A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Jane Eyre. So many more that I could name. Another influence and one I wish I could have saved to this day were my mother's stories – the novels she spent a lot of her adult life writing. Those were lost after my mom's death and to this day I wish I could have gotten her to publish them.

What stories have made an impact on your life? What are the ones that have stuck with you through the years?