#17 Hare and Tortoise, QUALIFIED

quest vs quit --> quietly.
Q is for the emotional feeling, QUALIFIED!

Hare and TORTOISE

I like this story.  
First, one of my favorites fables because I think of myself as a turtle, slow and steady, and somehow, at the end of winning to steadily achieving my goal as a writer. The turtle in Eastern mythology holds up the four directions of this earth. P'ngue, the first dragon of China, stood on turtle's back and listened to all the stories turtle told. Unfortunately, we assume P'ngue was a male and he gave turtle's tales to us. What if turtle was female, and the narrator did in the male voice, as the tales were.
 
When I was a child in Colorado, turtles still walked on the prairies, and sometimes we would catch one, of course, the snapping turtle bit. The turtles were old and about a foot across. I hope the slow, careful reptiles still live on those vast plains of the Midwest and races with the long-legged hare. Hard to tell which is a male or female, so suits both sexes.

The coastal Indians of American have a story for the 13 sections on turtle's back for the 13 moons of the year.

Secondly, why Iike this fable. The storyteller also has for centuries, forever, told traditional stories that have a simple plot: a quest. We enhance and re-image a place, time, characters, events to solve and push the adventure forward to the solution, then a conclusion. These are standard guidelines that create our novels. “Once upon a time, there lived so-and-so in a land far away . . .

This ancient fable, which I call, Rabbit and the Turtle, is an uncomplicated plot: a quest:
set-up – the careful turtle slower that the over-confident rabbit; CLIMAX - slow, plodding turtle wins; rabbit can’t believe the turtle won, and neither can the turtle.

I have discovered because stories are traditional, the basic plots speak to our genetic bodies. The bones of our stories and our bodies' bones connect through hearing and telling. We re-image scenes, place, characters and events, everything but the plot. Look at all the Hare and Tortoise stories in the library. Writers and storytellers link the simple plot to us inbred into our spirits, souls, physic for centuries before there was writing or photos or films or DVDs. A simple scheme satisfies, verbal stories are remembered.

This fable is from Aesop, a Greek slave, who came from India.

A HARE one day ridiculed the short feet and slow pace of the Tortoise, who replied, laughing: "Though you be swift as the wind, I will beat you in a race." The Hare, believing her assertion to be simply impossible, assented to the proposal; and they agreed that the Fox should choose the course and fix the goal. On the day appointed for the race, the two started together. The Tortoise never for a moment stopped, she went on with a slow but steady pace straight to the end of the course. The Hare, lying down by the wayside, fell asleep. At last, waking up, and moving as fast as he could, he saw the Tortoise had reached the goal and was comfortably dozing after her fatigue.
Slow but steady wins the race.

#16 Durga helps of the Gods. POWER

provoke vs protect --> prepare. 
P is the emotional feeling, POWER. 

Durga Helps the Gods.

     

  I LIKE THIS STORY. I learned that woman has a lot of control over the men, (Gods, kings, and demons) while the men think they are in control. Durga is one, powerful Goddess called to help Gods. Her duty to drive a demon for the Hindi lands of India. She has all the emotional characteristics of a warrior: fearless, disciplined, determined, and physical powers.

I met Durga when I was a child running across a field playing "Ya, ya, Ya, you can't get me," teasing a monster.

Years later, in a creative writing class, I wrote a short story of my childhood running through the fields enticing a monster. “Ya, ya, ya, you can’t catch us.” I fell; I knew the beast would suffocate me. When I stopped yelling and screaming, I saw this wonderful magical woman, not my mom, not an angel, not a faery, and not a saint. From then on, I knew I was protected. I actually forgot about the story knowing always knowing was safe. I even told this story for the primary challenge for America Has Talent. My telling was not convincing.

Read on wattpad.com

Finally, Durga, herself, spoke to me. "I am the field goddess. I am of the Shakti energies of the earth, the Devi, the goddess of protection created by all the Gods. Durga comes as a mere woman to help the innocent. You were a child, who thought a monster lived in the field. Durga helps conquer dangers, helps overcome foes, offers courage to stand and fight if slicing off the head of the evil demon."

I had her voice. Come read her story on wattpad.com, DURGA HELPS THE GODS.  

 Why is this story unique? The major male Gods and the minor gods create a superwoman to conquer a demon because of his request, death only by a woman. I think the buffalo-demon came from the Mesopotamia trade cultures many, many centuries ago to conquer India?  The demon is part of the good/bad fights between the GODS as KINGS. Masiha thinks he knows the Hindi view of women, 'curves to serve'.

What is cultural awareness?  The gifts the Gods give to the woman tell how much the Gods battled with other outsiders to create immortality and realms for themselves. All the Hindi Gods are one huge verbal ‘soap opera’ then to written mythologies. The bonus being Gods reborn again and again is to play out dramas. I thought the Greek mythology was confusing.

#15 Li Chi the Worm Slayer, OWN

opperssion vs obstacle  --> oppose.
O for the emotional feelings --> OWN!

 Li Chi, The Worm Slayer

I LIKE THE STORY. When I found Li Chi in the Asian Art Museum Storyteller's notebook, I was elated!  Dancing!  Shouting, finally, a real heroine from China in 200 BC! Li Chi slew the worm, the monster, that devoured girls in her village, she stopped the sacrifices. I told this story in the Chinese Gallery in the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Boys and girls liked the story.

I realized that as a girl, I had to survive the male-dominant structure and his dictates on my feminine life. As a pre-teen youth reading fairytales, folktale, cautionary tales, and legends, I did absorb successes as other ways we could oppose traditions. 


What helped me, as a girl child, was my dad, bless him. He pushed his daughter to believe in herself. He made me forced me to think of myself as a girl who could do anything she wanted. Only the male lines were there; I don't know if he could see them. I was not asked to go hunting, I could go fishing. For a profession, I could be a librarian, teacher, maid, bookkeeper, secretary, or prostitute. By the 1960's I could go to college. A woman with the future, not yet recognized as an author, artist, storyteller, lawyer, doctor, film producer, judge, president, and on and on. My life was confined by the fairytale and folktale restrictions still present in societies at this time.

As stated before, words for feminine always have a male word hovering inside, man, lad, or he. At least in Latin had an 'a' for the female, the anima, and 'us' for the male the animus. The yin and yang of the Chinese for equality are not true.

--> fe'male,' second to a male;
--> 'lad'y, second to a lad;
--> wo'man', second to the man;
--> s'he' or 'he'r, second to he;
--> 'hero'ine, second the hero;
--> t'he'y has he included;
--- t'he'ir has her included.
--> this has his included
--> the has he and can sound like he.
--> they include the word 'he'.
--> these include the word 'he'.

Unfortunately, 'he' still leads and solves the problems and dilemmas of our world. As a girl, a young feminine, I was pushed from the successes because of my sex, a 'damsel in distress' a maiden to be either an old Maid, unmarried or matron, married.

And what is funny for me, in high school when the school pictures were taken for the yearbook in all the clubs I was a member, and that was many, I wore a small crown in my hair. I did not care if my critical classmates saw or if they did, they were into what they wanted. I was traveling to places. All these years, I wondered what my teenager thought when wearing a crown.

After analyzing thousands of stories, written, told, or filmed, after wanting to be an artist of children's book and a storyteller and then write; after years of pushing for that girl, my youth to succeed; I knew. The maiden, damsel, the servant, the princess, the matron, the mom, the aunt, the grandma, the hag, the crone, the witch, even the sorceress 'had come of age'. I entered the University with a scholarship and loan from the government for a poor female with high grades. I had struggled with all the emotional empowerment from all the damsels in many stories; I won, not as a warrior, as an educated girl with places to go, people to meet, and successes to have.

#14 Sylvia Saves the DAY, NECESSARY

need vs nourish --> natural.
N is for the emotional feeling, NECESSARY!

Sylvia Saves the DAY. 

I wrote this story in 1992 after my volunteer position as Regional Advisor for SCBWI from 1886 to1989. And after researching and publishing my father's family tree, 'His, Her, and Ours.

I saw Sylvia Saves the DAY as a picture book with a drawn quilted spare for the 27 scenes. The picture book never happened, I stopped illustrating and sending my stories to editors. The market had dropped, and I would wait for a return opening. While waiting, I pondered why my stories did not please editors.

While lying on my couch, resting, and rereading my stories, a voice floated through my mind, "you write analogies. You need sunshine in my sky, to dig in the rich soil, so you can move on". The gardening healed my hurts about rejection." So Sylvia, the happy gardener, misses the sun who falls in Sylvia's woodpile. Curran, the wind, helps Sylvia, who saves the day, a strong matron.

Well, as all good stories go, a climax. While gardening during the cold rains in 1998, I got pneumonia and had to stop weeding. 

Again lying on my couch, the voice floated through my mind, "Time for you to stand on stage and tell stories." All my life, I never volunteered to read out loud, and as RA in SCBWI always had someone else stand-up and run the meetings. I worked behind the scenes, safe, not being a man, male, he; I had no voice.

To evolving my style, I needed more education, a broader range of stories from many countries like the story I read as a 5th and 6th grader. My opportunity arrived, storytelling in 2000, then the invite 2002 to tell at the Asian Art Museum, I entered a temple of stories. I would realize why the male voice dominated in writing and stories.

#13 - Sparrow's Gift, MORALITY

mean vs modest ---> merit.
M for the emotional feeling of MORALITY!

Sparrow's Gift

I like this story. The Komi force, a wood statue of the 8th century, denotes feminine energies.YES!

The Tongue-cut Sparrow, or as I call the story, ‘Sparrow’s Gift,' is a Japanese folktale that tells explains the Shinto beliefs, which are ancient, so ancient, first told not written.

The oldest records are from pieces of pottery showing birds, who were the Tarii spirits. The vital force is Komi, which is in all nature, everything is alive, even rocks. One must walk through the gate to Shinto - the medicine way, one must wash - then calling the spirits, sparrows are of this ancient spirit, Tarii. The ancients before 2,000 AD and earlier called this the Honey Way. 

In this story, Sparrow's Gift, the old grandmothers, one is kind and one is greedy, shows the way to Shinto, the Honey Way, or as gifts given by the sparrows. I have used the voices of the grandmothers to show different means of receiving and what the rewards will be.

#11 - Naga Princes, KINDLE

kill vs know —> keep.
K is for the emotional feeling - KINDLE!

The Snake Princess, NAGA
  Do I like this story? NO! Maybe, yes. I understand why this story sang to me. A young girl child gets to go to college, the University of Colorado, to learn the morays of the educated male world. I took classes to understand the way of social structure; the male and I was a female allowed to be a teacher, nurse, or wife. Feminists were not outspoken in the Rocky Mountains, which was about 100 years behind time, even if Colorado was one of the first stated to allow women to vote. I figured voting rights were to have women come and live in the state.

The Princess Naga does get prestige after schooled by conversations with BoShin: notice the male has a name because humans are the supreme beings. The snakes, Nagas, in the Eastern part of our globe, are a symbol of emotions, although honored must be kept in hand, under control.

The man again is the teacher, the honor supremed being. I'm getting a bit disturbed by all the honor and how much service he receives from women in these old tales. I read these as a child, what did this do to my enthusiasm for life.

Well, I could not be a writer because I was and girl. Worst writing was not taught in public schools, only filling the blanks. Even with my first story published in the Colorado Springs newspaper in 8th grade. Fifty years I am secure with write. Now, I fiddling with folktales, I read as a girl child and know why I liked them; the girl had hope.

I have changed the title of the series to 'Damsels in Distress.' These women knew or went along with the norms of society.

# 12 - Elisa and the Eleven Swans, LOYALTY

lost vs labor --> librate.
L is for the emotional feeling of - LOYALTY!

Elisa and the Eleven Swans  

Do I like this story!  Maybe!

A folktale supposedly Hans Christian Anderson wrote, and after reading his real effort to write, this follows the traditional folktales of the time. He told it in the royal courts, so given him credit because males wrote about male's worth.  Elisa knows how to weave, so first told by servants and laborers who created clothes, most likely together, spinning tales of hope.

This tale is like the Grimm Brothers. A wicked stepmother full of jealousy ruins the life of the father, (the word 'her' included in the spelling), and the children, especially the daughter. I always wondered, "where is the father"? Again, a wicked woman (wo'man' the word man included in the spelling) ruins with 'his' family. I think these (t'he'se) are tales to have women (wo'men') stay with her family because another wicked woman will destroy everything without the man knowing, "never trust the other woman."

The saving feature of this tale is a sister, learns weaving from the peasant family. After Elisa travels through a horrid nightmare adventure, frees her brothers from a curse spun by a wicked woman, the stepmother. Who is really the nemesis? Patrilocal society!

Also, this hints at the acceptance of what is offered with no fighting, screaming, or anger just blatant acceptance. Were women this dull-witted or is this folktale to tell young girls, if you accept and are patient and loyal, you will be liberated as a QUEEN, destine to run the castle for your husband, the KING, or always just a working Princess.