Folktale
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On the Search for Beauty and the Beast by Louise Laux
As I started research for Beauty and the Beast, I noticed that so many stories have beauty and the beast plots; the obviously beautiful woman/girl meets the obviously ugly guy. Of course the guy is ugly on the outside with the underlying good guy who needs to be understood to find his beautiful soul on…
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Egyptian Cinderella by Carol Bedner
The Roman historian and geographer Strabo first recorded on papyrus the story of Rhodopis in first century BCE which is stated to be the earliest version of the Cinderella story. Rhodopis was born in Greece, kidnapped by pirates as a child and sold into slavery to a rich Egyptian merchant who lived on an island at the mouth…
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Everlasting Story by Carol Bedner
Talk about staying power! The story of Cinderella has circulated from 1st. century BC through 700-plus renditions in 45 countries, twelve operas, seven ballets, seventeen musical theater productions, over 50 films, 70-plus novels, 36 songs, as well as comics, video games and a jump rope song. The story is well known to us all: a…
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Pregnant with Story Ideas by Sandi Howlett
While working on my repertoire of stories, I was gushing with creativity and energy. One idea led to another and another and another followed by my organizing them into logical and distinctive categories. As I wrote brief descriptions for each story, it was as if I was ‘reliving’ the stories much in the manner of a life…
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Burning Down the House by Amy Bird
I got back last week from visiting my daughter in Portland, Oregon for the first time since she moved there eight months ago. Just before I arrived, she and two friends had finally left the basement of another friend’s family home where they’d been living all that time and had signed a lease to rent a house…
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So Long as One Remembers by Sandi Howlett
One of my all time favorite movies is “Out of Africa”. The opening scene of this contemporary classic shows Robert Redford sitting at Meryl Streep’s feet, imploring her to “Tell me a story”. The movie is the true story of Karen Blixen, a strong willed woman who runs a plantation in Africa around 1914. The movie…
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The Golden Baseball by Maya Jones
Most of my family history is lost. My parents did not share the stories of their childhoods and my siblings and I did not know any of our relatives, so we know hardly anything about our roots. I see how that lack of connection with our roots has deeply affected my family. We are pretty…
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Empathy by Carol Bedner
Webster's definition of "empathy" is the action of being understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts and experiences of another past or present. I heard on NPR that there is a test for empathy and whether we have a high or low dimension. The lack of empathy does…
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Where Are Our Heroes? by Carol Bedner
In doing research for a personal story I discovered the cowboy ethics and code of conduct that were stated and promoted for girls and boys to follow. They were from the cowboy heroes seen on TV in the 50's. Hopalong Cassidy was the first with his code and was respected as he valued integrity and honesty…
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Where is the Story? by Mark Compton
Many of the readers of this blog know my mother passed away two weeks ago. I have begun the unenviable task of going through her stuff. What to keep, what to toss, what’s important? I came upon a roomful of purses. O.K., maybe it wasn’t an entire roomful, but it was a lot of purses. In reading Maguire’s “The…
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Spiral Scope Storytelling by Peggy Babbitt
Once in my childhood my Mom bought me a spiral scope viewer toy. It was made out of cardboard, wrapped around with glossy, bright, multi-colored paper. When I went and looked through it, it had vivid colored designs that changed right before my eyes. With each turn it changed to different spiral images. I just…
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The Healing Power of Myth by Maya Jones
Recently my grandson, Lukas, asked me for a story about a search for a golden baseball. It came out of the blue while we were sharing a snack at the kitchen counter. Immediately it resonated with me – I knew this would be an important epic story that could help bring healing to our family…