Jeff Davis | Vent Section Manager

1/05/02

Moe Nisch had her interview for a Peer Instructor position a few weeks ago. The Connecticut English major wasn't in the most confident of moods, so she summoned her suitemate, fellow English major Stephanie Saunders. They had "emergency story time."

"I read her 'The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Pressure'," Stephanie said. The interview proceeded smoothly and Moe was grateful for Jan and Stan Berenstain's successful line of children's books.

I remember my father reading from his and my mother's own collection of Golden Books. Dad would sit on the edge of my bed, my tiny body sitting caddy corner to him, an eager chin pressed against his arm as he turned the pages and I waited for what would come next. There wasn't a better nightcap than Arnold Lobel's "Frog and Toad" or Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows."

Dad brought these books out of our barn in Botetourt County for me. They'd spent at least fifteen years under tarps with old furniture and artwork. Lately I've read them by myself and I've read a few with Stephanie and Moe. I gave them what may have been their first exposure to Beatrix Potter's "Squirrel Nutkin." After they'd finished digging fingernails into each other's skin they scolded me for reading them the "worst story ever." Right after that they broke out in big grins and listened intently as I narrated "The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit." I did whatever I could to articulate the voices the way Dad did.

Stephanie looked down at me and cackled. "Now I know why you're so messed up. Your parents read that stuff to you when you were little." Thank God they did.

Every person my age knows the feeling of disconnection; to people, to places, to ideas, to expectations. Being stuck in Southwest Virginia all my life, I've been yearning to get out and maybe never come back. Reading these books again reminded me of the good things we always seem to take for granted. I'll never have those evenings where I clutched the sheets in anticipation of Papa Q. Bear's next goofy mistake. Those were memorable times and they drown out everything that makes me reel in this region.

A lot of characters in literature (and even some people I know) find that imagination is damaging because it pulls one away from the realities of the world, things that can be calculated, predicted and taken for granted. These stories really help me and my friends cut loose because we can read them aloud, or even share the view of the pages, and get a charge out of simple humor, like a bad bunny stealing a carrot from a good bunny.

No one's going to get through the day unless that person can laugh at something or remember something that was once close to them, and can still be close to them. Humor and closeness to our routines got so many of us through the events of last September. I recommend with my heart that you read, watch, or listen to something you haven't in a long time when you're feeling less than perfect.

Bring a few people in on the action, too. You'll all get to know each other just a little better.