Story Telling a Lie

Telling stories to children can bring you to the utmost exhaustion since it will bring you eternal regression when they start with their “Why's?” But then that's just the tip of the iceberg. The not so good thing in explaining is when the children doubt your stories.

I've had my own experience when I was asked to speak in front of elementary students somewhere in Springfield, Ohio. It was Women's Week and my topic was Asian Women. What better story to tell than the very women that ran our country. So I started with something like this:

“Have you ever heard of a woman that had 3,000 pairs of shoes, 500 pcs of underwear, and 200 gowns? she lived in a palace but is not a queen.”
At this point, all the children were glued to my face. A 'How could that happen?' was the expression I got...and so I continued.

“She was the wife of our 5th president. They were very extravagant people. They had parties all the time, ..while the people were hungry and poor. They ruled our country for 20 years until the people said, “ENOUGH!” So they stormed the palace and got rid of the evil president. And guess who was the leader that kicked them out?....A WOMAN! Her name was Corazon...

Then I continued with my story about the Philippines, touching on interesting points of our history and ending again with GMA, another woman, who at the time of the speech, had just gotten re-elected.

After the symposium a little boy came up to me and said, “Is your story for real? I've never heard of the Philippines.” And another one said, “ I like your story, but is it true?”

These kinds of comments ignited a flame within, that made me want to share the beauty and the richness of our very own Filipino culture. So what do I do: Enroll again, what else.

When I was young, our elders were embarrassed when there were questions they couldn't answer, so they resorted to 'spritual answers'- that God was THE all that no one questioned. And instead, we'd end up more confused than ever. Here's what am talking about:

Kid: Why didn't Adam die when God said he would?
Ans: Why do you ask that?
Kid: Because you said the moment he ate the apple, Adam would die but he didn't, so God lied!
Ans: No he didn't. God doesn't lie.
Kid: Then you lied!
Ans: No I didn't
Kid: Then, can someone please tell me the truth....

or to put it clearly:

Kid: Does God sleep or he just rests?
Ans: God does not have a body so he doesn't rest
Kid: Okey! So why did it say on the 7th day He rested.
Ans: Because he stopped doing things.
Kid: Can someone, again, tell me the truth here......

or finally...

Kid: If God gives us everything we ask for, how come we don't have everything.
Ans: God only gives what's good for us.
Kid: Oh...I think Santa's better.

As a grown up, we shouldn't be embarrassed that we don't know everything and accept humbly our shortcomings. And if all else fails, my quick response would always be, “Just google it, Kid.”