Saturday, July 14, 2012

Sometimes all it takes is a story

Stories and metaphors have a way about them.  They help us name things in a different way: dress them up, dress them down... sometimes laugh at the silliness of ourselves, in the guise of such as the farmer buried in corn. This is a Garrison Keillor story (Minnesota humor).   Despite my having been reared in the big city of Minneapolis, it names truth about my story as well.   I am still regularly buried in corn, despite having lived away from Minnesota for years.

Sometimes all it takes
Is a story
Like this one:
There once was a farmer
In Minnesota,
Trapped by corn
In his silo
While his children waited
For the school bus.
The farmer did not call out
Until his children were dropped off
In the afternoon.
School was important
After all.
I know that farmer.
I was that farmer
Often
I am that farmer
Buried in corn.
Sometimes all it takes
Is a story.
I could wrap myself around that story,
Claim it for my own;
Dress it up,
Dress it down,
Hold it out
For viewing,
My own and others*.
There is often great power
In a story.
Sometimes all it takes
Is a story.
The Minnesota in me
Buried in corn
Sometimes waits and waits
No trouble at all
Nope
No trouble at all.

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