News stories, short stories, my stories

Maybe it was listening to stories about swine flu all week.

Maybe it was reading a short story from 1975 about the fear caused by cholera on Wednesday night...

... "No, there is more than the body of a man that you have in there," I said. Because now I was sure what it was. I had heard the talk up and down the river, and everyone was afeared that it was coming back, any day now. I don't mind saying that I was afeared too. And had been for a long time at the thought it was coming.

from The Burial by Jack Matthews

Maybe it was the dead squirrel on my side walk Friday morning.

I love making up stories so all day Friday I found myself telling this one...

Have you heard that Squirrel Flu has come to Lansdale? You see, when I left the house for work I saw what I thought was a dead squirrel on the sidewalk at the bottom of my porch steps. I went in to tell Mosaic Woman that she may want to stay inside for a moment. I was going to head back to the garage for a shovel when I realized I had a snow shovel in the mudroom. It was when I was scooping up the squirrel that I realized it wasn't quite dead. It turned and faced me and with a final gasp, it coughed directly at my face. Knowing that deadly flu viruses can spread from other species, I began to be concerned when I my temperature rose over 100 and I began twitching nervously in the middle of a road not sure which way to run away from oncoming traffic. A concerned friend tells me that the final stage of the disease involves raiding bird feeders and making squirrel like sounds.

Anyway. I have always felt blessed to be living in a country and during a period of time when fear of infectious disease has been so low. Cholera, Typhoid, TB, Polio.... I am also glad that my tax money goes to the CDC. I don't expect them to always say the wisest statements, but I believe in their mission.

I imagine the human brain has a special section to fear diseases that spread causing much suffering as they move through populations. Listening to folk this week, I believe our brains are alive and well, and thus full of fear.

For my part I tell stories. And my students, who know me well, say... "You're lying to us again."

and I say, "part of it is true."

may peace be with you.

a passion for the short story

Returning to books from your past can be an interesting journey. My opening line to Mosaic Woman back in 1986 was about a book, that when I revisited after many years, thought much lesser of and made me wonder about how life changes us, but the line caught her attention and we have been talking ever since.

It was a year or two before I met her though that a biology professor introduced me to the short stories of Raymond Carver, which amazed me at the time. And for many years I hunted down collections of short stories by a wide variety of authors. Not too long ago while sitting in a theater watching previews, I said, "I know this story." And I did, "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" by a much favored writer, Alice Munro, had been put on film... Away From Her. Read her stories. See the film.

So teaching English this summer to the brightest my school has to offer, I not only taught about how Latin and Greek words have formed our language (see this post), but I also tried to introduce them to stories that are not long. Three weeks ago I came home with anthologies from the library to get some newer material than what is sitting on my bookshelves. And for three weeks I have been immersed into my old love of stories. At one point in my life I even tried my hand at being a writer of them.

But I also picked up an older book by Raymond Carver, and had my students read A Small Good Thing. To offer something small can bring peace is shown by a baker who has unknowingly caused much grief to grieving parents.

Raymond Carver's stories did not appeal as much as they used to, but I can relate to the man who turned away from destroying himself when he found the love of a good woman. Which brings us back to where I started this post.

and the book that I used to catch Mosaic Woman's attention.... Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I write that title and think of all my friends in college who recommended it to me. Did they know it would help me find a woman to share my life with?

God's creation unfolds and we are free to catch the wave and see where it takes us.