Monday, June 24, 2013

Octopus and Lobster

Once upon a time, there was an octopus.  The octopus lived deep in the ocean among the rock and sand and kelp.  She greatly enjoyed her home and all the things it gave her the chance to explore, but over time, she found that she had explored all the objects and plants near her cave.

So she set out through the ocean to find new things to explore.  She swam and swam until she found a small reef, where she descended to explore.  There, sitting upon a large rock, she found an old lobster.  The lobster looked up at her and clack-clacked his pincers at her.  He said, "Who are you?"

She replied, simply, "I am an octopus looking for a place to explore."

"I see," said the lobster.  He clack-clacked at her again.  Clack.  Clack.

The octopus settled to the sea floor and began exploring.  As she touched the various objects, she changed the colors of her arms to match.  The lobster scuttled along behind her.  Clack-clack.

Finally, he said, "You can't do that."

"What?" asked the octopus.

"You can't do that."  Clack.  Clack.

The octopus, nervous, asked "Why not?"

The lobster, angrily, said, "Because I live near here and I want you to leave."  Clack-clack.

Nervously, the octopus said, "I'll try to be very careful.  I just want to look and explore."

The lobster angrily snapped at one of the octopus' arms.  Clack.  Clack-clack.  The octopus danced away. The lobster advanced, continuing to snap at the octopus.  Clack.  Clack.  CLACK!

The octopus, pushed to her limits released ink and swam backwards, too high for the lobster to attack her.  Sighing to herself, she moved on, determined to not let the lobster ruin her exploration.  Letting the tides take her, she moved through the sea, settling on a grand, colorful reef, filled with corals, stones, and fish.

She settled in to this new home, allowing her arms to play through all the many colors of the corals and resting easily with the fish who darted and played.  She allowed thoughts of the lobster drift away like loose kelp and lived happily in her new home.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

First Posts and Introductions

So what is this place?

Both a simple and complex question, I think.  To answer it, I think I should talk a little bit about myself first.  I'm a 30-something guy; that means that elsewhere online I sometimes swear, I watch sports, I occasionally play games where things die, I feel strongly about treating people with equal respect (even if, and perhaps especially because, not everyone can have equal opportunity or ability), I'm strongly loyal to friends and family, and sometimes all of that means I'll say something stupid or get into a pointless argument.  But none of that is what is going to go on here.  I say it all just to say this: I'm no saint.  I like telling stories, though, and quite often, they're in the form of children's fables.

Where do I come up with them?  Most of the time, the stories I intend to write here come from stories I tell orally to my wife, my niece and nephew (my wife's cousin's kids; to my knowledge my sister has not had any secret children she is hiding from anyone who knows her who may be reading this), or my cousins.  Someday, I'm sure I'll do the same with my kids.  Which is a big part of why this blog is here.  I tend to forget these stories within a week or two.  I make them up on the spur of the moment, incorporating the things I've experienced or talked about during the day.  Because there's so little planning for them in my mind, they tend to flow out easily and then wash away.  But I'd like to keep them.  And I'd like to share them.  So I created this blog to serve as a storage and sharing space of sorts.

I have no real sense of how often I'll write here.  I'd like to do so once a week, but my stress levels and how much I'm working can change that quickly.  So I'll say that I'll write as often as I can.