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?
