Haunted

     Call me a nerd. I've spent the majority of these past few days in Colorado reading and writing. In fact, I've read about one thousand pages over the past three days. Quite the luxury. One thing that I struggle conveying to people is the degree to which I get involved in books. I know it's true for me and several others I've met, but I'm not sure if it's just a literary nerd trait. When I read a book, I am startlingly close to living it. I take the time to learn the characters as intimately as I know my friends and feel the emotional struggles as closely as if they were my own.

     I'm sure most people have read about a character that attaches him/herself to the recesses of the mind. The character lingers like the sweet, earthen smell of rain for hours or days after the storm has passed. I'm currently having that particular reaction in a book I am reading. Whether I'm driving to a nearby town to eat or walking our dog, the girl in this story travels with me, all but tangible in my day to day life.

     Perhaps that's the sign of a well-written book. Perhaps of a novel idea. I'm going to guess, however, that the truth is behind imagination. What a great aspect of the human mind: Imagination. From all the knowledge people have gathered regarding life on this planet, I'm not sure we've come across another being that had imagination other than ourselves. We can see words, formulate thoughts, envision characters, and on top of it all, imagine every aspect of that character's life, written or unwritten.

     That's the beauty of stories. At the heart of it's conception, process, and ultimate interpretation lies imagination. The story can literally and metaphorically be whatever we want it to be. A protagonist is a protagonist, but MY protagonist will forever be different than any other reader's, and there is immense beauty in that realization.

     My trip is more than halfway over and I will be returning to grad school, work, and a near infinite number of other obligations upon my return, but I will be at least one haunting character, one thought-provoking plot, and one enlightening story richer.

     Here's to imagination.

Eight Hours

     What is your favorite novel? Your favorite movie? Song? Play? What about your most loathed Disney antagonist? Or the television show that makes you laugh so hard you cry?

     If you're like me, every one of those answers would require several minutes, if not days of deep thought.  It's not that I can't compare Beloved and Light in August or Scar and Ursula, I just struggle settling on a single one. After all, how many books have you read? Probably less than the number of songs you've heard.

     I heard an interesting statistic the other day: The average American spends eight hours a day reading, watching, or listening to stories. Whether it's watching the news when you get home from work, reading before you go to bed, or listening to your friend talk about the cute guy who glanced her way in math class earlier, stories define our every day lives.

    So what if I asked you what you believe is the most important story of your lifetime? If you're religious you might answer the Bible or the Qur'an. If you're 14 you might answer Harry Potter. The possibilities are endless and there is no right answer. So why did I ask? Because I believe stories are at the heart of what it means to be human. From the cave paintings to Trajan's column to Hollywood, every society across time has had story at its center. After all, whatever religion you belong to has a story of creation or beginning. Whether God made man from dust or the Water Beetle brought mud from the depths of the ocean to form the lands as the Cherokee belief holds, humans and the earth are the great creation. By design, we are the inheritors of the world. Being created, however, does not define a human. The animals, plants, viruses, air, water and fire are creations as well. So what separates people? Stories hold the answer.

     On the most basic level, in order for a story to be shared, somebody must record it. Today we pay ten dollars to go to a movie, twenty for a book, and a few hundred for a television, all to get our fix of stories. But who created those stories? Along the way there was a filmmaker, an author, an engineer, each a component of the ultimate story. For that is what people are. We are the created, but we are also the creators. For every person there is a Narnia. For every planet a Yoknapatawpha County. For every star a Hundred-Acre Wood. You've told your story to friends and strangers, and you've heard the stories of thousands.

     It is a story that defines who we are. Yours, mine, and every one we have heard that changes us in some way. We are the creators and the created. The talkers and the listeners. The actors and the audience. So read a book, or write a poem, or catch up on the news, and celebrate being human.