I just listened to the most amazing story on This American Life
It’s about a young, unhappy teenager who ran away to Piers Anthony’s house. Setting aside how amazing it is to listen to the narrator describe fanning in a time before the internet, it’s even more incredible to hear this man describe how he determined where Piers lived, flew across several states, and faced sentry dogs at the gate of the “oracle” to learn that, if he just kept his head down, he would soon be able to make his life a safer and more comfortable place.
Part of the story is an interview with Piers Anthony, who relates a little of his own deeply unhappy high school experience. In the author’s notes that end one of his books, he tries to explain to people who didn’t survive troubled childhoods that survival skills are not something some people can just “let go of” or “relax”. I felt like Piers was describing so many of the people I’ve found in so many places and befriended and loved in my life.
How different will it be for kids from now on who have access to the world wide web and only have to log on to find someone, somewhere, who is going through and feels the same things they do? Who can google and find blog after LifeJournal after Tumblr written by those of us who have lived our own versions of the hero’s quest for the places we’ve never been and yet feel homesick for.
Those of us who grew up to understand how fortunate we really are, how strong we can be, and how important it is to pass this message - by every available means of communicating - to others who need it.
(shadesong, I hope you will forgive my borrowing of your tag-line for Shayara. Did I ever tell you that that line - "Have you ever been homesick for a place you've never been?" - is what drew me in to your stories [both fiction and RL]?)
Part of the story is an interview with Piers Anthony, who relates a little of his own deeply unhappy high school experience. In the author’s notes that end one of his books, he tries to explain to people who didn’t survive troubled childhoods that survival skills are not something some people can just “let go of” or “relax”. I felt like Piers was describing so many of the people I’ve found in so many places and befriended and loved in my life.
How different will it be for kids from now on who have access to the world wide web and only have to log on to find someone, somewhere, who is going through and feels the same things they do? Who can google and find blog after LifeJournal after Tumblr written by those of us who have lived our own versions of the hero’s quest for the places we’ve never been and yet feel homesick for.
Those of us who grew up to understand how fortunate we really are, how strong we can be, and how important it is to pass this message - by every available means of communicating - to others who need it.
(shadesong, I hope you will forgive my borrowing of your tag-line for Shayara. Did I ever tell you that that line - "Have you ever been homesick for a place you've never been?" - is what drew me in to your stories [both fiction and RL]?)