Story: Wisdom's True Heart

Once there was a man named Father Carlotta. He possessed all of the wisdom within the world and people from all over the land would seek him out for wisdom and advice.
He was not easily angered, but there was a group of men who were able to anger him. They would come to him with questions and instead of taking his advice would decide what to do on their own. Father Carlotta saw this and felt as if his wisdom was being thrown away. Because of this he decided to no longer share his wisdom, but that he would hide it away from everyone. So he began to collect all of the wisdom that he had given away, plucking it from those who needed it most. This left people afraid and questioning every decision that they made. When Father Carlotta had succeeded in collecting all of this wisdom he sealed it in a jar and put that jar around his neck.

(Jars)

Now Father Carlotta had a daughter, Arya. Arya loved all the people of the land and they loved her back. She began to notice that the people were acting very strange and saw so many decisions that were not taken with wisdom. So she snuck into her father's room and saw the jar of wisdom around her father's neck. She did not know what to do. She could not confront him, so she began to follow him.He took the jar into the mountains and began to climb as high as he could. He began to struggle to climb when the ice had become too slick. Again and again he tried, but always he failed. Angered he did not know what to do.

Suddenly Arya jumped out from around the side. "Father, here, try this," and she showed him how to climb the ice. She showed him the metal shards she had stuck to her shoes that helped her stick to the ice and be able to climb. "And here I thought I had all the.."

The ice began to shift and collapsed below the feet of Arya. She began to fall into a chasm when her father, using the jar and the string around his neck, reached out to grab her.

(Chasm)

She grabbed the string just in time and was soon hanging over the edge. "Father, the string is about to break," Arya screamed out in terror. Father Carlotta had only an instant to decide. He could save the jar that held all of his wisdom and all the wisdom throughout the land or he could reach for his daughter saving her from certain doom. The string snapped and the father, reaching out, grabbed the sleeve of his daughter, throwing her to safety, in the blink of an eye, all while the jar containing the wisdom fell and fell to the bottom of the chasm. "Why, why did you save me? I thought nothing was more important to you than your wisdom." The father looked at the tears flowing down his daughter's eyes. "I made the wisest decision I could have ever made and I would make it again just to know that you are safe." Without the notice of the father or daughter the jar had reached the bottom and shattered. And with that shatter all the wisdom within the jar spread throughout the land giving to all who lived there wisdom.

(Icy Mountain)

Author's Note: The original story tells of a trickster-spider who had all the wisdom in the land. His role was to give wisdom to those who sought it out. Out of anger he collected all of his wisdom and devised a plan to hide it forever. A place where I made a change is in the original the wise man had gone into the woods and tried to climb a tree so he could hide the jar of wisdom in a place to where no one could every get it, whereas my story goes to the mountain where he tries to climb very high. In the original Anansi's son gave the father advice about an easier way to climb the tree. In my story I added a daughter instead of a son, but each proved to be wise without wisdom from the father when they showed their father a better way to do something. The original story Father Anansi became angry because his son made a wiser decision than he had and in his anger threw the jar of wisdom on the ground. The jar broke, spreading the wisdom all through the land.

Bibliography: West African Folktales: How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race by William Barker and Cecilia Sinclair; link to reading

Wikipedia Trails: From Storms to Ghost Sickness

So I am sitting here trying to figure out what to start with and there is a storm happening so I googled storm and that is how I began. From there I saw a particular kind of storm called a dustdevil. This is sort of like a tornado but much much weaker. From dustdevil I saw how it became named and that led me to the chindi which is a Navajo word. From there I was reading and I saw that the Navajo believed that anyone that came in contact with a chindi had ghost sickness. This sickness has weakness, loss of appetite, dizziness, nightmares, and terror attacks. It was interesting to see how just thinking of a simple storm has led me to see Navajo traditions and beliefs that a ghost interacted with a human causing a sickness to occur.

(Storm)

Bibliography:

Storm; link to reading

Dustdevil; link to reading

Chindi; link to reading

Ghost sickness; link to reading

Reading Notes: West African Folktales, Part B

This section of the story was very interesting, but one part I liked a lot was the leopard and the ram. It is about how the leopard and the ram became wild and domesticated respectively. There are a few things I would love to change to give this story a new idea. One thing I would like to change is the ending part of the story. So after the leopard finds out how the ram kills his prey he becomes very nervous around him. I would like to make that justified. So after the ram hears about the leopard finding out how he kills his prey, he decides he has to kill the leopard so no-one learns of his secret ways he hunts. One night the ram shows his pre-attack motion. The father leopard seeing this aimed at his son yells at him to run away as fast as he can and jumps in front of the attack. The father leopard would be killed, but his son would escape into the woods. So same basic idea just adding a little love and sacrifice in there to keep up the theme of my portfolio.

(Watchful leopard)

Bibliography: West African Folktales; The Leopard and The Ram by William Barker and Cecilia Sinclair; link to reading

Reading Notes: West African FolkTales Part A

I really enjoyed these stories and loved the variety and the applications that each one gives. Through reading these I am looking for ways in which love can takeover as the main theme. One part I particularly liked was the way in which humans received wisdom. This story shows the stubbornness of the person who contained all the wisdom of the world. His son though proves himself to be wise which angers the father. I would love to change this overall theme. I want the son to prove himself out of love for his father. And in a "passing of the torch" so to speak the father then gives the son wisdom because of his deeds and his love for him. In this his son decided to share that wisdom with everyone, that they may feel and help their loved ones.

(Father embraces son)

Bibliography: West African Folktales: How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race by William Barker and Cecilia Sinclair; link to reading