A freudian landslide
One night I was quizzing my 8th grade daughter for a Social Studies test using her review sheet and notes on the Cold War era, Kennedy, Cuba…you get the picture.
Me: So, who was Joseph McCarthy?
She: Joseph McCarthy was the senator who said that 57 members of the State Department were Republicans — OOH OOH — I mean Communists.
In the midst of this election season we laughed and laughed. Even at 13, she knew this was a mighty funny slip of the tongue.
No matter your political leanings, the thought of what the country would be like if, indeed, someone tried to blacklist Republicans, not alleged Communists, got me thinking. Quite a story there, eh?
Sometimes a tiny twist can make a huge impact on a story. You can take something real and make it fake. You can undo something that was done and create an entire sequence of events from your imagination.
Everything story comes from somewhere – even if every tidbit is fictional the origin of the story was sparked by a paper bag on the ground or horrible rainstorm or your glorious or treacherous past or how you wished you could ride on a unicorn.
With every twist it belongs more and more to the writer – to the person who untied the knot of history or looked at something normal and turned it sideways.
How much do you slip and slide before you come to a full stop with your stories? How much twisting do you do to make them your own? I do it lots.
Isn’t it fun?
What a nice post!
And funny
.
Darn Republicans. I shouldn’t say that too loud — my mama is one.
Twisting a story, making it cry out in glee or in pain (is that creepy?) — is fun. I am learning, at long last, when to leave it alone.
That was a hard lesson for me.
Dow.