Storytelling

Someone asked me recently why I haven’t been blogging lately. I told her that I have spent a lot time this summer pulling weeds and it’s not the most thrilling subject. . Between the rain and the heat, weeds have been ridiculous. And that’s not even commenting on the swarm of insects that rises in a cloud of turbulence with every weed unearthed. I have decided that I don’t love yard work.

My house is hot. I have a window air unit and it keeps the living room bearable. The swamp cooler upstairs keeps the attic cool when it works. The swamp cooler is a millennial because it works when it feels like it. I have replaced every part of it and tonight it was the fan that quit. I turned off the pump and turned on my old fashioned fan and got back in bed.

I couldn’t go back to sleep. At first, I thought about the swamp cooler some. Do I get a new fan? Buy a new swamp cooler? A window unit? Central air? I tried to think of something else.

I went to see The Sound of Freedom. It’s like Law and Order SVU only on the big screen. The cinematography is incredible and it is based on a true story. I am sure the Barbie movie will make a better profit, because living in a Barbie world is much more entertaining than living in a world where children are sex slaves. But what really resonated with me was the power of storytelling. Some stories are harder to tell and even harder to hear. Those are the stories that can change the world. Stories that remain buried only gain in power until they explode.

The real reason I haven’t been blogging is that someone recently asked me not to. Not quit blogging exactly, but to not blog about teaching. Censor myself. I am kind of laughing at that. Imagine what I could say, if I wasn’t already censoring myself. That’s the power of storytelling. And I guess that’s why it makes people uncomfortable. Don’t talk. Don’t complain. Don’t cry. Don’t say trauma.

August is coming and apparently the weeds aren’t stopping and I have to make a decision about the damn swamp cooler. Also the rest of my life. The only thing that I absolutely know to be true is that I am not going to stop writing. I just don’t know which story comes next. I’ll keep thinking about it.