THE NEW AESOP, AND MAYBE THE BIG WOLF WASN'T SO BAD.

I'd like to think that my little scribblings are occasionally charming because of my great drawing ability, but they're not. They are my attempt at visually interpreting, literally, what I see and imagine, and they are (perhaps sometimes) unique BECAUSE of my limited skills, not in spite of.

So, when I tell a story and my children INTERPRET that story, and re-tell it, getting many of the details...different, their end result is frequently more interesting than the original.

To draw PERFECTLY is to re-create a photograph; to tell a story with the exact and total inclusion of accuracy, honesty, and detail is to serve up an often-boring and bloated narrative that may be reflective of the letter, but not the SPIRIT of the tale. Which is why fiction is sometimes more adept at conveying truths of human nature than non-fiction or "reality."

When I told the Biblical parable of the lost sheep and the farmer who searched for the one lost one, then this oft-told version paled in relation to my son's alternate telling. Here's the short version:

"If I had a hundred dragons, and one of them got lost, then I would go looking for for him....l

Pause for dramatic effect.

"...but I wouldn't find him because he would have been eaten by a bear."

And that is what "inspired by" means. Reframing and creating in terms of your own interest, perspective, experience and skills.

Happy Dienstag, all