Storyteller

This morning I was told that I should write my stories down.

Krysta had an idea last night that I should write stories. I didn't tell her that when i was little my family called me "Korey Story" because I always had stories to tell. For me, the line between truth and fiction was blurred and inconsequential. I knew, even then, intuitively, what people wanted to hear, and I delivered. I have written many stories, but not recently. I need to work on writing more of them again.

A while back I had this idea for a book that I was going to write. It was going to be about America, the people that make it up, the formation of families and the stories they have to tell. It would not all be pretty, but it would not all be Gothic either (despite the fact that Southern Gothic is my favorite style of literature, and anything I write is tainted with it). My view of America is a multicolored, ever-changing, beautiful nation, akin to the very American quilt. As simple a metaphor as it is, it works perfectly. The fabric of our lives are of different colors, textures, and qualities. Some of the pieces are worse for wear, some new and untouched by love, anguish, or emotion. Up close, a true quilt of scraps and leftovers is a cacophony of noisy prints and gaudy colors, but from afar it is beautiful. I would like to write my American family quilt and piece it together with the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly.

If ever a person was suited to write about the inhabitants of this great nation, it would be me. of course, it could be anyone here. This is not a country club or a church where length of membership qualifies you for anything more than what every other member enjoys. An American for life, for generations, or for one day is as much as American as any other. This is what makes me love this nation; the diversity and the beauty. I have to focus on what I love about the country because there are so many things I dislike. When it becomes time to write about the dynamics of American people; their families, their work ethic, their diversions, and their sagas, I draw from my experiences and those of the people around me, as well as the rich traditions and lessons offered up by some of the most stunning literature that has ever been written. Ecstatic at times, elegiac at others, American literature is vast, diverse, noisy, and ugly, but taken in context it is honest and beautiful. This is what intimidates me about writing anything in the tradition of the great American authors.

Of course, if I don't try I'll certainly never succeed...