Chinese Version
08-18-2021, Wednesday, cloudy and sunny

I want to tell a happy story on a happy day. The charm of fairy tales

When my children liked to hear my stories, I told the fairy tale of “The Rabbit and the Turtle” many times, but I more often retold fairy tales me and my children had made up. I still remember a fairy tale my daughter and I made up when she was about 5 years old.

My daughter went from Virginia on the East Coast to California on the West Coast at the age of 4 and from San Francisco to San Jose at the age of 5. She changed three different kindergartens across the United States in two years. At that time, she was still the only child. We often made up stories together while walking. I told the beginning of a story with some options for her to choose, then she put her wishes or fears into the story to expand the story for the next session. Then I would add some fragments that I thought were relevant when “listening to the next chapter” according to her plot. From the details she added to the story, I sensed that she experienced the sadness of having no friends or being left out by her friends. We made up a story about her making good friends with small animals. My daughter chose the turtle as her best friend because the turtle won the race with the rabbit.

While telling the story of my daughter and the turtle, we made it up together, and this story telling lasted for nearly a year. I still remember some interesting details.

Sometimes she asked the turtle out to play, but the turtle was too tired to go out with her and she had to go out alone. Once she went out with the turtle and saw a show on the roadside. She was so happy to stand by the side of the road and watch the show, but the turtle stayed on the ground and couldn’t see anything. On the way home, the turtle was very unhappy; After she knew the reason why the turtle was unhappy, she had an idea. Since then, when she watched a show with the turtle, she always picked up the turtle to watch the show together. The turtle was happy and she was also very happy. Sometimes she and the turtle had so much fun outside, they forgot the time and went home too late. The turtle was punished by her mother and couldn’t play with her the next day

Now recalling the fairy tale of “my daughter and the turtle”, I think the beauty in the creation of a fairy tale sometimes begins with a kind of spiritual extrication when the creator is disappointed or a kind of spiritual desire when the creator is lonely and helpless.

Little Episodes

In the morning, I went for a walk along the Charles River in Waltham with my daughter. The humanities were leisurely and the scenery was quiet:A beautiful woman in a daze by the river, a enthusiast fishing man there by biking, and a couple gazing at the river on the deck.