I am obsessed by stories, by storytelling and other assorted and connected ways of transmission, I think about stories a lot. About what they are and what they do and how they are part of what it means to be human. And i never really wondered where this came from till I suddenly made a connection
as a very small child I lived in a children's home, where we didn't get told a lot of stories frankly, or get a lot of attention, but our social worker was an Afro-Caribbean guy and he did spend a lot of time with us and he did give us attention. And he told us a story, well he probably told us lots of stories, but this one is the only one I remember and it is the first story (possibly was the first story) I ever remember being told, and I remember he told this story lots, sometimes out of a book and sometimes out of his head. And it was the story about how Anansi got stories from the Sky God and gave them to humans.
There's a version of the story here
And it just blows me away that the first story i ever had, I who have no stories passed down, no stories that are my birthright, was about the beginning of stories, about how humans were given stories.
And making this connection opened up the space in my mind to know that there is space in my life for a story telling, story giving, trickster deity, maybe not forever, maybe just long enough for me to say thank you, because stories saved me, but who knows? Maybe he will stay. Maybe he will be a "borrowed" god. Not mine but gracious and graceful enough to let me give him offerings and learn lessons from him.
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