Stephanie Says.. Take a walk inside my head

Who cries at the Dixie Stampede? -I- cry at the Dixie Stampede. When they began talking about the literacy program going on here in the Pigeon Forge area and how Dolly and others strive to give each child sixty books by their fifth birthday (one a month from the time that they are born until the time that they turn five), I started tearing up. Ya’ll, I cannot TELL you what books have meant to me. I wasn’t an easy child. I didn’t express myself well and often found myself uninterested in whatever the kids around me were pursuing (balls…ugh!). I wasn’t friendless or anything, but I was a kid who NEEDED my books. I have grown some, but I have grown into a person who STILL needs her books. Linus. Security Blanket. Books and I have THAT kind of relationship. My brother, however, was NOT that kind of kid. He was a soccer ball chasing boy from the word go. He did not, in fact, like to read or even see the purpose behind it, though he DID like to look at the pictures. Homework was NOT his thing. He would rather be out running after some kind of ball or jamming with his band. Until -Indian In the Cupboard-. Something about that story transformed my brother from a kid who HAD to read a book into a kid who WANTED to read a book. He wasn’t fully hooked. He was, and remains, an outdoor kind of kid. But for that moment, he got it.
I can’t imagine a world in which kids don’t have a chance to “get it” for themselves. I just can’t.
I can’t remember beginning school. I can’t remember learning to string letters together in order to form words. I can’t remember sounding out my first story. But I can remember being caught. I can remember falling in love. Over and over again.
That is what I imagine Dolly wants for these children…the opportunity to fall in love, not with a person, not with a romance, but with an art.
And this art…this art takes so many forms. There are so many stories that have been told. There are so many stories yet to tell. There are so many, so many ways to tell them.
I’m hooked. I’m in love. There are little ones around me tonight about ready to fall.
Imagining that…seeing people passionate about making that happen?
That, my darlings is big.
That, my darlings…That made me cry.