Stories, stories everywhere
I’m always fascinated by people who claim to have writer’s block. For me, there are stories everywhere from the couple I saw tonight at a restaurant who never said a word to each other to the homeless man cradling a dog in the rain this evening. See what I mean? There are stories everywhere.
I just finished teaching a summer class at the local community college, and every one of those students had an amazing story. Nineteen-year-old Jamal’s mom has been in prison since he was 14, and he’s never known his dad. His older brother raised him, and now that brother is serving 15 -20 for manslaughter and “other things.” Jamal is in college now hoping to be an inspiration to his little brother, who is the first person in his family NOT to have ever been arrested.
My thoughts are with my student Andy, a single father who came out of the projects and was at one time quite the well known drug dealer. Now he’s battling throat cancer and on his daughter’s first birthday had to have surgery.
Telling stories is how I make sense of my world.
