Secondhand Lions

I only got to watch the last 15 minutes of a movie that I have been looking forward to watching all week because I totally forgot it was on, instead the tube was hogged by people watching some basketball game or another. Natch! I love this movie, too! A great example of story telling. I wonder if I got it as an audio if it would be just as good?

When we would go camping when the children were young we would bring books on tape/cd and in the evenings (or afternoons if it was a rainy trip) we would put the tape/cd on and watch the fire as books came alive in our minds. We listened to the Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, and Pride and Prejudice are the ones that I can immediately think of. Games of cribbage or dice (played to 25,000) or endless rounds of Yahtzee would also be played as we sat listening to the voices, each of our own mini-movies spinning in our heads.

When Hubby and I gave a class on teaching children's classes we showed a series of movies that featured the art of story telling. So much of what we teach our children can be best taught (and best learned) through a story and it is wonderful to see that this is not a lost art. And art it is. Over on Auntie's blog she had a contest for people to name a piece of art. Most people couldn't stop with a name, they gave it a mini-story.

When I read the blogs of others there are so many stories out there. Often what I read is obviously something that the writer has either told or heard numerous times. Oral story being preserved in the written form. I read the words aloud to my family and a little later I overhear one of them retelling it over the phone to one of their friends. Yes, it has changed a little, much like the stories of the secondhand lions. How much of the story is what actually happened and how much of it is what all players wished happened? How much of it is colored for a better effect, or a worse one? Would the original cast recognize their roles?

The beauty of the word and how it caresses the idea giving the creator the opportunity to communicate love, anger, joy, sadness, ecstasy, despair is one of the most important things that a parent, mentor, can give to a child.