Your mother and I have started a little ritual in preparation for your arrival. A new translation has come out of the Arabian Nights and some have called it the best translation ever. Perhaps in your lifetime an even better one will come out.... Probably. It happens. Human beings improve in some ways, stay the same in others, and seem to keep messing up in other areas like compassion and mercy.
Even though the great storyteller of the Arabian Nights is said to have told her stories over 1,001 nights, we don't really have that long to wait until you arrive (which is a little mind-blowing, truth be told.) But each evening (and I know it won't be EVERY evening), I'm going to read from the stories that Sheherazade is supposed to have told King Shahrayar.
Sheherazade begins telling her tales to try and stay alive. (King Shahrayar is a jealous king who enacts cruel revenge on the women who sleep with him.) For me, we tell stories because we are alive, to remind us of this aliveness, this spark that makes us say "Aaahhh!" in the presence of beauty (which may be why they call it "awe" [News Flash: the Oxford English Dictionary says the word is of Old Teutonic (sorta German) origin and actually refers to the feeling of "dread" or "fear".... That's not what I meant: amazement?])
Stories are about possibilities and ways that we find a path through the dark forest of the world... and all the amazing creatures, talking animals, perfumed planets and curious people we meet along the way. The same way we're going to meet you.
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