“Dog Stories” comes partly out of my continuing interest in
the way people tell their stories – in this case, stories about dogs. … People
never talk about nothing, not even when they seem to. There are always secret
and interesting reasons for the stories they decide to tell and for the moments
at which they choose to tell them.” – Francine Prose
I don’t find myself in the position much to be on the
receiving end of a good dog story. Most stories that come my way are through
work, and I can’t really call those “stories”.
I suppose a reason that I’m not on the receiving end is that
I’m rarely in social situations that allow others to tell me stories. I don’t
have a large social circle and most stories that come my way are told to me by
my children.
The advice that Prose gives above though can be used with
those stories because my kids are great at choosing the times to tell me their
stories.
Through this BASS reading exercise, I have found a great
spark to tell some of my stories. The story randomly finds its way to me across
time and provides the spark to ignite the process of thought. Sometimes this
process can last days, weeks or months. Sometimes I can relate to a story
immediately.
What is unfortunate though is that I find myself falling
into the habit of not reading and in turn, not telling my stories.
