January 4, 2007

Out of the Mouths of Babes

When my oldest son was three he was a huge fan of Superman. Actually, he still is but don't tell anyone. Ssshh.

He decided he needed a cape just like his hero, so I pinned a bath towel around his neck with a safety pin and he ran outside to play.

I could see him in the backyard playing and noticed he was jumping off of our air conditioning unit...several times.

After an hour or so he came back inside looking very down trodden. He said, "Dad, it's very hard to fly."

He had the tools, he practised and still he was not able to achieve his goal of flying.

Some authors and teachers of writing believe that you cannot teach a person how to write. They either have the gift or they don't. To some extent I agree, but I think the mechanics of it has to be taught.

I do believe that there is some element of talent envolved in story telling.

Before books and paper were readily available to the average person story tellers were the living books of society. Now whether some had the gift and others didn't, I do not know. But I think there is a little bit of a story teller in all of us.

Look out world; I have my towel pinned on and I'm going to fly. ;0)