Story beginning
Story
Debbie Horne sat in the rocking chair, a book in her hand.
“Today, boys and girls, we’re going to read a story about fish!”
Tiny tots squiggled on their rectangular carpet mats.
Debbie, the children’s librarian at the Paris-Bourbon County Public Library, began to read. Just one page into the story, a small hand shot into the air. Debbie paused, book held aloft, and called out the child’s name.
“Miss Debbie, I caught a fish once!”
“Oh good, that’s good,” she said. She read a few more lines.
Another tiny hand shot into the air. Again, Debbie paused.
“Yes?”
“We went to the beach one time, and we saw a shark and the shark bit me!”
Debbie paused, made her mouth into a tight “O” and raised her eyebrows. She read a few more lines.
Another tiny hand shot into the air.
And so it went …
We who gathered around the Throne of Story started and stopped, started and stopped, started and stopped. Each page Debbie turned and poured out for the children dredged another story from their young minds. Some tales were matter-of-fact. Some … well, let’s just say they might make for good writers one day. Rest assured, dear Commonwealth, the imagination that flavors and enflames our past, present and future is alive and well in the children’s section at the PBCPL.
As I sat there in that room, my own tiny tot on my knee, I realized two things. First, story begets story. Second, connecting stories strengthens both the teller and the hearer.
That’s what we do here at Kentucky Monthly magazine. It’s one of the reasons why I love to write about, and for, my Old Kentucky Home. Perhaps the stories I tell will plant seeds that will nourish your stories, or remind you of your own once-upon-a-time. Perhaps, when the telling and the hearing are finished, we will be stronger, wiser, kinder.
The lessons I learned in the library that day remind me of one of my favorite passages in the Bible:
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (ESV)
Fits with our motto, too, doesn’t it? United we stand, divided we fall.
My hope and prayer this year for my beloved Commonwealth is that we continue to share the stories that matter, and truly listen for the stories that connect us.
YOUR TURN: Give and receive a story today.