FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES

He wasn't exactly a babe when I asked a young boy if he would like to read a short story of mine. (I forget which story for it was several years ago.) He asked, "Is it a true story?" I answered, "No, I made it up." He said, "I don't read stories that are not true." 

This was such a surprise that I was left speechless. Once I got home, of course I could think of fitting replies to the boy's comment. Had he never heard the children's classics such as The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and The Three Bears, or Cinderella? 

I felt this was a misguided Christian concept and I now had the answer to that. But the boy didn't live near me, and I saw him seldom. What I would have told him was that even Jesus told made-up stories. That is what a parable is, a made-up story told to teach a lesson. I certainly do not mean to disparage anything our Lord said, but the serious novelist is also trying to teach a lesson: He presents a conflict or several conflicts, and the characters work out the solution by the end of the novel. Generally, good is rewarded and evil is destroyed. 

I see this as a deprived childhood.