My first conscious memory of a "story" book is one I will never forget, and is one I am eternally grateful for. One night, I remember picking a book from my dad's bookshelf and climbing onto my parents’ giant bed where my father lay watching television. I remember, upon handing the book to my father, the confused expression on his face, as the book didn't come from my shelf of "Learn to Read" kindergarten level pamphlets, but from his own library. On the cover, a boy riding a broomstick against a purple starlit sky, with shaggy hair, glasses and a scar on his forehead; the title, I would soon learn, was "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."
At the young age of 4, I knew nothing about it, but the image on the front had already told me a story, one I was sure continued within its binding with even greater vibrancy and wonders. And boy, was I right. As my father read to me the tales of wizards and witches, good and evil, happiness and great sorrow, I was enveloped in a world I had never even dreamed existed. And yet, even in such fantastical whims was hidden more truth than I ever could have realized at that age. And that's the power of story: its ability, even when shrouded in complex dialogue and spectacular creatures and characters, to tell the truth. Though some may not be universal truths, they are truths nonetheless. Truths to the author and truths to all who feel something, all who are touched in some way, by the story.
Stories can be told through any medium and are found in all walks of life: verbal stories passed down through generations in Asian cultures, captured within an ancient leather bound book covered in dust, even in that man walking down the street with his headphones in, gaze fixed on the ground. Yes, he is a story, too. I bet, if you took the time to sit him down and say, “Excuse me, sir, tell me your story,” a life would burst from him the way a whale erupts in a frenzy when excited.
It is the most vivacious and grasping moment when people are given the opportunity to tell their story. I think if more people were given the choice to tell their own story, they would feel better about themselves, more significant. Maybe they wouldn’t be so stressed or upset or frustrated with life because looking back they could see all they succeeded in and everything they learned. They would find truth in their own story. We are surrounded by stories and stories are within us, stories are us. They hold personal truth. This is why I believe storytellers are the most courageous of us all for they plaster their soul on a billboard for all to see in the hopes that their personal truths will mean something to someone and perhaps let them know they are not so alone.
All stories are told for a reason. When you're little, you do not think about literature in this way; children start with intriguing, colorful pictures or funny books about talking rabbits. But even those books have significance. My parents used to read the book "Guess How Much I Love You" to me every night before I went to bed. I always giggled because the "mommy rabbit was so tall!" But when I got older I took a look back at the book, carefully observing every page. The third page was a dedication: "To Liz, with love -- A.J." I read the book again. And I cried. As a child, the word "love" does not have much weight. But in that moment I felt its gravity because the author had written it for a reason and for those few minutes I melted over the words written in the story. I could feel that love granted a second-hand version of it, but some form of that love nonetheless. My mind then, as if sent off in rocket created a story of its own. About the author and Liz. Who was Liz? Was she a sibling? Was she a wife? A lover? A daughter? All stories have meaning.
Story is a power that is not to be reckoned with as it has the dangerous and beautiful beauty to ensnare the mind and excite the senses and the imagination. We could not exist without it. Every second human beings and animals alike create stories that are all etched into the stone that is history. Every story that has ever existed has power and meaning to somebody. I'm still writing my story now. I'm writing it with the hope that one day when I, or anyone else for that matter, opens my story and reads it, they read all the way to the end.
