Old Enough Again for Stories

Of Lewis, Prachett, and the joy of revisiting old friends.

This morning, I heard a quotation that brought me to tears.

But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

It’s from C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

It’s a line—and a way of thinking—I have always found poignant. But it hit me today with the force of three hammers.

Here are three bruises it left on my soul.

Life is too short to write every story.

Lewis dedicated his first foray into Narnia to Lucy Barfield, a young girl and evacuee of the London Blitz - much like her fictional counterpart, Lucy Pevensie. It took him ten years to finish the story. By the time it was published, she was already a young adult. He wrote the following dedication.

My dear Lucy,

I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books.

As a result, you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still.

But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it.

I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be,

Your affectionate Godfather,
C. S. Lewis.

My own writing began in earnest two or three years ago, depending on how you measure it. My stack of rejection slips is growing, as is my smaller pile of honorable mentions and editorial encouragements. I can tell I am improving. But all this writing and revising takes time.

The uninitiated may ask if I have enough story ideas to keep writing. The blunt answer: Yes. I will run out of life long before I run out of stories to tell. But the telling takes time, especially if you want to give each work the trim and polish it deserves, before sending it out uneven feet to play with the other stories.

Many things grow, and age, quicker than books…

Especially little girls.

I am a father, and blessed to be called “Daddy” by two beautiful and energetic daughters. They’re young, they both love to hear stories.

My oldest has discovered wonder, loves Disney films, and is always asking for “spooky stories”- just not too spooky. The youngest toddles up with a picture book and plunks down on my lap to hear about ducks, geese, brown bears and hungry caterpillars.

Two years of separation; it makes a world of difference in what they want read or told. It seems like only yesterday, but my firstborn has outgrown the picture books. One day, her sister will as well, and we will say goodbye to board books with their small words written in large letters. And as they close, that age will close as well.

But not forever…

I am aging. This year I’ll enter a new decade of life. As such, I’ve been putting down the cookies, picking up the weights, and staring ruefully at the hair dye section in Target. It is part of life, and beats the alternative.

I am aging. Life has been heavy and dreary lately, enough so to drive me from my current dark reads to lighter fare. Last night, I began rereading Guards! Guards! By Terry Pratchett. It’s a comedic fantasy, and one I love. Within its pages are old jokes, old friends, and old memories. I read it first two decades ago. While ideologically different from Lewis, both of these departed writers spark stories in my soul.

I am aging - but that does not mean I am old. Narnia still calls to me, as does Ankh-Morpork, and Krondor, and the headier highlands of Middle Earth. It is a good thing to revisit the realms of imagination again.

My daughters will soon reach this fantastic stage of life. They are growing into the age to hear real and solid stories; To open doors to Narnia, to Oz, and whatever lands may lay beyond. I’m honored to share in their journey. And if I want to share a world with them, to tell them a fantastical story that will set their minds aflame, I should start today, while there is still time.

Here’s to the page turners, the wardrobe explorers, and the minds both young and old enough to read fairy tales once more. We may all be aging, but may we never grow old.

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