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Good Stories and Wise People have much in Common



Good stories and wise people foster a state of wonder



Wislawa Szymborska, the Pulitzer prize winning poet from Poland, said in her acceptance speech, "Poets, if they are genuine, must keep repeating, I don't know.....each poem marks an effort to answer this statement." (and I would say the same can be said of children's stories and children's authors)  Each story, in some way, is an attempt to wrestle with what we do not know, with what we wonder about.  As Katherine Paterson, Newberry medalist, says, "Story is the way we make sense of life."


Of course, WONDER is rather counter-cultural in our age of Google and Wikipedia.  But good stories and wise people encourage us to bask in mystery, to see, in the words of Browning, that "all of earth is crammed with Heaven," and to know that the best things in life are meant not to be measured, but treasured.


Nor is it the kind of wonder that marvels at the extraordinary or unusual, but rather the kind of wonder that Dr. Dorian refers to in Charlotte's Web....

When Mrs. Arable asks him if he understands how there can be writing in the spider's web, he answers,

" Oh no, I don't understand it.  But for that matter I don't understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place.  When the words appeared everyone said they were a miracle.  But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle."

Some of my favorite words of wisdom to ponder this week

"Literature is prismatic. Light shines through the excellent books or dances off and the rainbow it gives shine on and on in a child's life in a thousand different ways."  Jane Yolen


"To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart." Unknown







"Show me a day when the world wasn't new"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 







 

 

 



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So, what does all this talk about Wisdom have to do with stories?

Well, I like to think that good stories and wise people have much in common.

Good stories and wise people help us to love more

A wise African proverb tells us, "what you help a child to LOVE is more important than what you help them to learn."  And E.B. White, that marvelous author of Charlotte's Web maintained that, "All I want to say in books, all I ever wanted to say, is - I love the world!"  Now of course, the love we are referring to here is not the sappy, soppy Hollywood version.  No!  The love we mean is the nitty, gritty, sacrificial kind that makes a spider called, Charlotte, use her last reserves of strength to save the life of her best friend, a pig called, Wilbur!


Good stories and wise people give us courage

The word courage comes from the French word, La Coeur, meaning, HEART.  Wise people and good stories FEED OUR HEARTS with beauty, truth and goodness.  So they strengthen our hearts, and help us in the words of Blake's beautiful poem, to "burn bright in the forests of the night."  We know our job as parents and teachers is not to eradicate all the trials and troubles for our children, but rather, it is to give them what they need to face their dark days and troubled times - COURAGE, that will help them feel bold and brave and unafraid!



Good stories and wise people impart an "all wellness"

Madeleine L'Engle maintained that this "all wellness" should be at the core of ALL children's stories.  It does not mean that there cannot be sad stories, but simply that there must be some glimmer of hope, some pinprick of light simmering there beneath the sadness.  She was referring to the words of Julian of Norwich, the medieval mystic, who maintained, "all shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."  This is not a Pollyanna, naïve disregard for the sadnesses in our lives, but rather a stalwart belief in what all good stories tell us- GOOD will triumph - LOVE will conquer! (more on this topic in April)


Some of my favorite words of wisdom to ponder this week

"Be the change you want to see in the world."  Gandhi

"Beneath the muck and scum of things, there something always always sings." Emerson

"See our children as they are - unique persons with a song to sing, a dream to live.  Children are endowed with an inner power that can guide us to a more luminous future."  Maria Montessori.

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As a parent and a teacher, I have often tried to give some piece of wisdom to the children in my care, and when they ignored it, or just seemed incapable of incorporating it into their lives, I found myself frustrated and bewildered, until....

One year, I heard a wise homilist explain the meaning of the Parable of the Ten Foolish Virgins - a parable that likens Heaven to the story of the ten virgins/bridesmaids who carry a lamp as they await the coming of the bridegroom which they expect at some time during the night.  Five of the virgins are wise and have brought extra oil for their lamps in case they have to wait longer than anticipated.  Five are foolish and have only brought their lamps.  At midnight, all the virgins hear the call to come out to meet the bridegroom.  Realizing that their lamps have gone out, the foolish virgins ask the wise ones for oil, but they refuse, saying that there will certainly not be enough for them to share.  While the foolish virgins are away trying to get more oil, the bridegroom arrives.  The wise virgins then accompany him to the celebration.  The others arrive too late and are excluded.

I had always found this parable to be somewhat mean-spirited and could never understand why those wise virgins couldn't be kinder and share their oil!  But the homilist explained that the reason the wise virgins did not share the oil, was not that they were selfish or judgmental, but rather, that it was simply impossible for them to do so.  The "oil" represents their spirituality, and spirituality, like wisdom, is something unique and particular to each individual - it is not a commodity that can be bought or bartered or just instantly handed over to another.  Again, a counter-cultural notion in our world of instant gratification and ubiquitous consumerism.



Some of my favorite words of wisdom to ponder this week


"The color of your thought dyes your soul."  Marcus Aurelius

"Beware of the barrenness of a busy life."  Socrates

"Be kind to one another for we do not know the burdens another may carry"  (a friend of mine)

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"What we teach a child to love is more important than what we teach a child to learn.” - African Proverb


This month’s story from my video readalouds is a tale that honors—WISDOM.

The Name of the Tree is a Bantu folktale, retold by Celia Barker Lottridge and illustrated by Ian Wallace.

What is Wisdom?


According to the Collins English dictionary – “the ability to think and act utilizing knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight.”
But I prefer another definition that I stumbled upon many years ago (source unknown)

“Wisdom is experience reflected upon.”

I like this version because it highlights the connection between experience and reflection. While it is true that most of us do relegate wisdom to the domain of the elderly, we can all probably point to notable exceptions: the eight year old child who grows up with a single mother afflicted with diabetes, possesses a wisdom far beyond her years, or the eighty year old cantankerous great aunt in the nursing home, who for whatever reason has never matured beyond the mental age of 14.

So, wisdom is not just something that we acquire simply by living a long life, but rather something we earn through experience and deep reflection.

It’s interesting that in the Old Testament, Book of Wisdom, we see Wisdom personified as a Woman. In many of the Celtic stories that I read to children at school, the “wise” character is almost always a WOMAN.

In  Catkin a young couple seek advice from the Wise Woman in the village.

In The Witches and the Singing Mice, the townsfolk go to Granny Pine, who comes to their aid with he basket of potions and herbs.

And in  Fair, Brown and Trembling (an Irish version of Cinderella), the "fairy godmother” is portrayed as a “Hen Wife."

 

And of course, all the nine Muses from Greek mythology are female.

How to explain such thinking?

Perhaps it is not so much that all women are wise, and all men are foolish (although, I have to admit, there are times when I am tempted to succumb to such a conclusion), but rather, the qualities we associate with women (or used to) - gentleness, kindness, submissiveness, maternal affection and nurturing, are the very qualities needed to acquire wisdom. And so, when males do tap into such qualities, we say that they are tapping into their “feminine” side – counter cultural in our present society that seems to reward and honor the more masculine traits of dominance, power, control and force.


Some of my favorite words of wisdom to ponder this week -

"As a compass needle points north, so a man's accusing finger always finds a woman." (or as I like to tease my husband, one could substitute wife for woman!)
Khaled Hosseini - A Thousand Splendid Suns

"The unexamined life is not worth living."  Socrates

"There is nothing so strong as gentleness and nothing so gentle as real strength."  Francis de Sales (patron saint of writers)

"What we teach a child to love is more important than what we teach a child to learn." (so true, especially in the realm of children's literature, for when we teach children to love goodness, truth, beauty, and wisdom (the stuff of all good stories), then they will naturally be drawn into learning how to read and write!

Harris Bilingual Elementary

Thanks to all the staff and students at the wonderful Harris Bilingual Elementary school in Fort Collins for giving me such a warm welcome!


And thanks to the lovely Laura Resau (a talented and prolific author of middle grade novels) for organizing the visit.

Lovely display of students' work - in Spanish too!

My favorite question of the day had to be -

"Are you a Princess? "

 (we had been talking about my favorite movie, BRAVE and Princess Merida! )

 Would that I were a long- ago, brave and bold Princess! 

Nico and Murphy - two students who interviewed me for community radio!

To all the staff and students, GRACIAS!

Children in Haiti

Mercy and Sharing 

Susie Krabacher is the founder of Mercy and Sharing- a wonderful organization that has been helping abandoned and disabled children in Haiti for twenty years.

Recently she sent me a few photos of the children in the orphanage reading some of my books!

Mercy and Sharing are having their first fundraising Gala on November 2nd here in Denver -Tapping into Haiti's Future    A copy of The Giant King will on every table as a table prize.  Proceeds from the Giant King benefit Child Welfare League of America and Makumbi Children's Home in Zimbabwe.

Here's to a great evening of raising money for  children in Haiti, Zimbabwe, and America!

Halloween again...

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Every Halloween, it seems, I come across some students or parents who are unaware of the roots of this holiday, and so here again is my post from last Halloween for those who may have missed it.

 I love reading scary, spooky Halloween stories to children at this time of year, but I am always surprised at the number of students who are completely unaware of the roots of this holiday, and even of the derivation of the word itself.  At a recent school visit, in answer to my question about the meaning of hallow, the only child who raised his hand to answer, said, “empty,” obviously confusing it with hollow.  I suppose that is not at all surprising, given the number of people in the media who  pronounce it “Holloween.”

Ever since I came to America, I find that some teachers and parents are somewhat wary of focusing, or even of acknowledging the ghoulish aspect of this holiday, while some go so far as to maintain that it is at odds with the Christian Faith.

However, I think it provides a wonderful opportunity to talk to children about the whole notion of good versus evil.  Here is what I tell the children before I launch into my stack of spooky stories.

Halloween means Holy Evening from the old English- Hallow – Holy, and een – contraction of eve or evening.   Of course, as most people know (or at least I think they do), this holiday has its roots in the ancient Celtic/Druid/ belief that this was the time of year when evil sprits roamed the earth. In order to keep the dark forces at bay, people dressed up in costumes to “fool” the wandering souls.  With the advent of Christianity, the Celts still retained many of their ancient rituals (jack o lantern to ward off the evil sprits, dressing up in costumes and going from house to house – guising) and simply blended them into their new found Christian practices – going to Mass to celebrate the lives of the Saints and offering up special prayers for the dead.  Incidentally, the reason St. Patrick was so successful at bringing Christianity to Ireland, was that the Celtic people were already completely attuned to the idea of “other worlds” – Heaven and Hell, because they already believed in the “little people,” and they already knew that often times that which you cannot see is actually more real than what you can see.

On this Hallowed night then, I think it is good to read a ghost story or two, because the next day on the glorious feast of All Saints (one of my favorite holy days), I know that I will say a special prayer to all those “big” saints like Patrick and Joseph, Teresa and Bridget who filled this world with their goodness and grace and light.  And I will pray also to all those “little” saints – all those holy men and women who have touched my life with their particular goodness, grace, and light – my mum and my dad, all my dear Irish aunties and uncles, and even those wonderful writers, like C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle, and Thomas Merton, whose words continue to feed and nourish me.

To miss this opportunity of sharing with children that we know without a shadow of a doubt that goodness and grace will always trump the forces of evil and darkness, would indeed make this a very “hollow” festival!  So, light the lanterns, tell the spooky tales, don the wizards’ robes and witches’ hats, and have a 

                    Happy HALLOW  - EEN!
This book by Jenny Nimmo is an all-time favorite with kids at schools - very scary story from Scotland, with a great ending that beautifully illustrates the power of grace and goodness over the forces of evil!  Great for grades 5 and up.