The Power of Storytelling

Prologue

A few weeks ago I found three sheets of paper with a story written by Christina for a Toastmaster speech. The story had some editorial notes handwritten by her. The search for the final version did not return any results, therefore, what you are about to read is the result of having to type the draft of the document as is. To accompany her creation I selected a beautiful and warm image of my beloved. If you fall in love with her; I won't blame you.

I hope you enjoy her creativity as much as I continue to enjoy.

 

By Christina Horvath, 

Monday, February 18th, 2019.

Early on, my husband and I decided to make stories a part of our children's lives.  We knew the power of stories would help them expand their imaginations and help them develop a better sense of well-being.  Heck, stories are one of life's great pleasures and we wanted them to enjoy them.

Like most new parents we did not really know what we were getting into.  We had things well under control for a while with our nightly bedtime story routine; then one day my oldest daughter when she was 8 years old, approached me and said in her sweet innocent voice;

"Mom, can you read us a Harry Potter book?"

"Yes, of course dear."

Little did I know that the power of story was going to take an unexpected turn and that my family was starting a crazy obsession that would last for years!

First, we bought the Harry Potter books, then the Harry Potter DVDs, the Harry Potter cloaks, the scarves, the magic wands, the bookmarks, the puzzles, the posters, the jewelry, the playing cards, and on and on it went!  If you would walk thru our house you would see Harry Potter things everywhere!  The most interesting Harry Potter artifact was the sign posted above our toilet in the bathroom; it has an arrow on it pointing down towards the toilet and it reads "This way to the Ministry of Magic". For those of you unfamiliar with Harry Potter you would be interested to know that witches and wizards travel to the Ministry of Magic by flushing themselves down a toilet. Kafloosh!

In the middle of all of this craziness, the power of story was helping our daughters.  We had reports back from their teachers that both kids did have great imaginations and could write well.  We could see that they both became eager readers, mostly re-reading Harry Potter books.

It was obvious to my husband and I that Harry Potter was not just a series of books to our children, but Harry Potter was a powerful force in their childhoods.  When our daughters were 11 and 14 years old we decided to give them a gift that they would remember fondly for the rest of their lives.  I was to take them on a trip all the way to London England, to visit the famous Warner Bros Harry Potter Studios.

We bought the tickets for the studios months in advance.  The tickets specified the date and the exact hour that we were supposed to arrive at the studio.  In Europe these days, big attractions often require that you arrive at the specified time.  My daughters were only too aware that their aunt and uncle had been turned away at the gate of the famous cathedral in Barcelona for arriving 3 hours late.

I was not going to let that happen to us.  There was no way I was going to have my children be disappointed because we were late.  To ensure we could stick to the schedule we arrived in London three days early, and we boarded an early train in central London so that we could arrive at the studio 1/2 hour early than needed.  The train would take us to the station where a Harry Potter shuttle bus would pick us up.

After boarding the train, we zoomed along at a high speed until the train suddenly came to a halt.  Then the conductor came on over the audio system.

"I apologize, but we will be delayed a few minutes.  Please, remain in your seats."

Neither my kids nor I were happy about this delay, but we thought a few minutes would have not made a difference.  But as time passed, I started to get a nagging worry.  Nagging worry soon turned to agonizing worry because we were stuck for far more than "a few minutes".  Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock... my imagination was in override!  "We were going to be turned away at the entrance to the Harry Potter Studios because we arrived late?"  I was not going to accept this! Inside I was turning into a ferocious mama bear ready to snap at anybody who would deny my cubs their Harry Potter trip.  While my insides wanted to scream to get that train going, I kept a calm and confident exterior for the sake of my daughters.  Finally, the train started up and we were ultimately 2 hours late boarding the shuttle bus.

The tensions in me were looking for an outlet and I accosted the bus driver to explain our predicament.  He answered that we would have no trouble getting in whatsoever.

Whew, from then on, the day was absolutely perfect.  My daughters enjoyed everything from seeing the Great Hall of Hogwarts, Dumbledore's office, the potions classroom, sitting in Hagrid's sidecar, and eating chocolate frogs to name a few of the things we saw.

The best exhibit was saved until last.  We approached a room and could hear the low sounds of the beautiful classical music composed for Harry Potter.  We entered a very large room with the lights dimly lit.  What we saw before us was jaw-droppingly beautiful. It was a model of the Hogwart's Castle, but the model does not convey its humongous size nor its incredible beauty.  It took 40 artists 3 months to build this beautiful castle that was shown in every film.  Clearly, no detail was overlooked.  I was mesmerized and wanted to see my daughter's reactions.  I looked over and saw little tears welling up in their eyes.  A wonderful sensation of satisfaction came over me.

After all the craziness, the planning, and the final stress, I could see that a little piece of magic had been planted into their hearts by the awesome power of story.

Colophon

I have read this story several times and each time I enjoy it immensely and remember those days very well.  We used to do "face time" at the end of the day each day they spent in London.  No idea how Christina managed to make them go to sleep after the excitement.  They loved the trip and London as well.

In London, they visited museums and important landmarks.  They visited Shakespeare's Globe which they enjoyed immensely.  Christina used to quote Shakespeare at home, she was truly learned.  Sometimes I would make the wrong use of the language and Christina, and our children would correct my English which gave me an opportunity to play one of my regular jokes.

"I know I am saying it incorrectly using your English, but I could be starting a new trend, the same way Shakespeare did.  All you need to do is repeat this expression at school and everywhere you go and it will catch on.  I already use it at the office and people seem to like it."

"Dad, they probably think you are weird.  We are not doing that!"

For that reason, Christina would hunt down my mistakes in the sweetest and kindest way possible.  She wanted me to learn proper English and did not want our daughters to copy my backwards Shakespearian ways.