I JUST CAME HERE TO DANCE by Susan Mary Malone

Enormously!  Texas is its own unique world, even in today’s global one.  I was born here, and though I’ve lived other places, I always come home.  Not only do we have a rich culture of Texas letters, but the best of those reflect the very essence of what it means to be from this land.  Both the good and the not-so good.  But ah, the richness of a John Graves, or of course a McMurtry, or S.C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon (which is just the definitive history of our state).  When you read the Texas greats, their stories go straight to heart of who we are. 

Or as Paula Anne puts it in her own vernacular: “Whoever said, ‘People are people’ sure hadn’t spent much time in Texas.  We got the market cornered on lunatics.”  

All of it. Lol. But mostly, the myths and stories told on Diana’s porch.  I literally fell into them, much as Paula Anne does in the novel.  Many I knew, many I’d heard, and some were brand new to me as I, too, listened while Diana and the rest reenacted them of a hot summer evenin’.  Myths are the collective stories of our psyche, of what brings meaning to us individually and together, of what it means to be human, and how to navigate the treacherous passages.  

The further I went, the more I saw that the book was a myth within a myth, that it traversed a path of learning to hear and trust one’s instincts, as in “Vasilisa the Wise.”  Which is, of course, told on Diana’s porch and runs through the entire story . . . 

Stories, myths, the very essence of what makes us human, is my life path.  I love other people’s stories, and that’s what I write about as well.  And writing itself is my spiritual path.  I’m never so close to the divine as when I’m chasing characters through a story, finding out who they are and why they do what they do.  It’s my deepest form of prayer.   

And I learned along with Paula Anne to follow that quiet ever-present voice of the divine, whether you call it God or intuition or the doll in your pocket.  

Ah, stories carry the keys to the Universe!  It’s when we come to know those we perceive as “different,” come to understand what makes them tick—whether we see the world as they do or not—that we gain not only empathy but compassion as well.  Viewing the world from a different perspective enriches us all.  

And we know that early reading is a huge indicator of educational performance in children as well.  In fact, in a recent New York Times article called “The Good News about Educational Inequality,” the two professors discuss the apparent paradox that even though economic inequality is worsening, the performance gap between high-income and low-income children is shrinking. The authors argue that this is due directly to parenting practices that help low-income children.  “What is changed is that low-income children are now getting more of what the political scientist Robert Putnam calls ‘Goodnight Moon’ time than they did in the 1990s.” 

Storytelling has been at the heart of us since primitive times.  We learn, we grow, through stories.  

A River Runs Through It.  Although I love so very many books, that novel is the most exquisite piece of writing I’ve ever seen.  Not one word out of place.  The thin novella speaks volumes of the human condition, of what it means to love, and of how we can love deeply those we never understand.  

Every time I read it (and do so, ever so often), it breaks my heart more profoundly.  

It is simply beautiful.    

Oh, I’m having so much fun!  I’m working on a novel set in a Texas vineyard and winery, and ah, what I’m learning!  Texas viticulture has gained enormous respect in recent years, and many of the wines are heavenly.  Although I know the land, know farming, I didn’t know wine-grape growing, so that’s been quite the education. Finicky indeed, these vines.  

And wine making is such an art.  

I’ve been blessed to have growers and vintners mentor me, one in particular whose renowned vineyard/winery is in the same county where my fictional one is set. 

This story too follows ancient myths, and centers on a life of passion rather than just existence.  Ah, the meaning of life!