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I have just been reading a friend's blog in which she explains that she only writes about bad stuff because the positive stuff makes for very boring reading. In general, I would have to agree with her. No one wants to know how great a date was, but everyone enjoys reading about a disastrous date.
However, I also think it is important to acknowledge, once in a while, that there are reasons for hope and for optimism in the world. I came across one such yesterday, as I went to look around the recently refurbished playground in the tiny village in which I am currently living, out here in the Engadine Valley in Switzerland.
There is a new pulley system which my 12 year old nephew loved. There is also a rather ingenious wooden sculpture of a large ant which you can climb up and sit on. However, I was most struck by the storyteller's chair in the corner of the playground, and the little circle of seats surrounding it. The chair itself has a niche carved into it for storing the wood-bound storybook. The stories are printed on weatherproof cards and the original Romantsch version - with pictures - is translated on subsequent pages in French, Italian, German and English. Romantsch is a little known dialect which developed from the Latin spoken by the Roman legionaries who were stationed here. It is still spoken in this valley and a few neighboring ones, by a dwindling number of people. I am happy that people are proud of their language, that they are sufficiently open minded to tell their stories in four other languages simultaneously, and that they still believe in the importance and value of storytelling.
If you walk down the Spinas valley, there are five more of these storyteller's chairs, each with a different storybook.
There are many places where this could never happen. However, examining this storyteller's chair, I felt that all was right with the world.
However, I also think it is important to acknowledge, once in a while, that there are reasons for hope and for optimism in the world. I came across one such yesterday, as I went to look around the recently refurbished playground in the tiny village in which I am currently living, out here in the Engadine Valley in Switzerland.
There is a new pulley system which my 12 year old nephew loved. There is also a rather ingenious wooden sculpture of a large ant which you can climb up and sit on. However, I was most struck by the storyteller's chair in the corner of the playground, and the little circle of seats surrounding it. The chair itself has a niche carved into it for storing the wood-bound storybook. The stories are printed on weatherproof cards and the original Romantsch version - with pictures - is translated on subsequent pages in French, Italian, German and English. Romantsch is a little known dialect which developed from the Latin spoken by the Roman legionaries who were stationed here. It is still spoken in this valley and a few neighboring ones, by a dwindling number of people. I am happy that people are proud of their language, that they are sufficiently open minded to tell their stories in four other languages simultaneously, and that they still believe in the importance and value of storytelling.
If you walk down the Spinas valley, there are five more of these storyteller's chairs, each with a different storybook.
There are many places where this could never happen. However, examining this storyteller's chair, I felt that all was right with the world.
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