The Warren & the World Vol 4, Issue 16

The Warren & the World is Story Warren’s weekly newsletter, providing a round-up of our favorite things from around the web as well as a review of what was on our site over the past week. We’re glad you’re here!

Around the Web

Why I Write Scary Stories for Children

This piece has been shared more than any other on my social media feeds this week. Our friend N.D. Wilson writes for The Atlantic about why he writes scary children’s stories.

I write violent stories. I write dark stories. I write them for my own children, and I write them for yours. And when the topic comes up with a radio host or a mom or a teacher in a hallway, the explanation is simple. Every kid in every classroom, every kid in a bunk bed frantically reading by flashlight, every latchkey kid and every helicoptered kid, every single mortal child is growing into a life story in a world full of dangers and beauties. Every one will have struggles and ultimately, every one will face death and loss.

Jane Eyre and Our Age of Authenticity

The Queen turned 90 on Thursday, and she shares her day with one of my favorite writers, Charlotte Brontë, who would have been 200 this year. Karen Swallow Prior looks at Brontë’s best known character, Jane Eyre, and examines what she can teach us about authentic faith.

Not coincidentally, it was also around this time that the novel developed as a literary genre—a form expressive of modernity, particularly individual autonomy and subjectivity. Bronte’s 1847 publication of Jane Eyre marks a point at which the rise of the novel and the rise of the modern notion of the self converge.
Centered on the heroine’s quest for her authentic self, Jane Eyre depicts what Taylor calls “the massive subjective turn of modern culture, a new form of inwardness, in which we come to think of ourselves as beings with inner depths.” Before the modern age, being “in touch with some source—God, say, or the Idea of the Good—was considered essential to full being.” The modern shift, however, replaced this external source of authority with the notion that “the source we have to connect with is deep in us.”

6 Things I Wish I Had Never Told My Children

Tina Plantamura writes at the Huffington Post blog about those catchy little phrases we so often say to the kids in our lives that are actually rather misleading.

My oldest son just graduated high school and is now embarking on the next leg of his journey that will bring him closer to real life. I have come to realize that there are so many things that I wish I could un-tell him.
I hope he knows that all of these empowering, yet misleading little statements that I (or others with the best intentions in mind) might have spoken into his nearly grown-up ears are not exactly true.

Why we really need to be sharing the laughter, joy, struggles, and hope

Seth Haines guest posts at A Holy Experience sharing about a gift he once gave his wife Amber.

In the early years of new motherhood, I watched as Amber was winded by these exercises.
We’d had three children in three years, and her days were a whirlwind of feeding, cleaning, repairing, and playtime conflict resolution. At the end of the evening, she fell into bed, worked her way to sleep as the doubts creeped — Am I doing this right? Will I ever be a good enough mother?
Am I doing this right? Will I ever be a good enough mother?
Others assured her, told her she was doing fine. This was the way of early motherhood, they said. You’ll grow into the art and the practice. If you asked, she’d have admitted—she was not so sure.
We made Christmas presents for each other that year, opting to forgo the holiday rush with two toddlers and a newborn in tow. I considered the perfect homemade gift for Amber, one that might steel her legs in these days of early motherhood.
That’s when inspiration hit—I’d collect letters of encouragement from other mothers to her.

Around the Warren

Lessons from Little People: Life at Child-Speed

Guest Alyssa Ramsay shares what she is learning as she walks at child speed.

I’ve learned what to expect when I take my kids for a walk: my three-year-old hits the ground at a sprint. He charges into the wide world at full tilt, without a plan and without fear. He just has to run. He is a doer.
His sister, on the other hand, ambles along with her eyes on the ground, stopping every four or five steps to study a weed, or a worm, or a rock. She collects treasures all along the way until her chubby little hands can’t hold a single buttercup more. I’ll call her a thinker.
And then there’s me, stuck in between, calling after my son to slow down and pleading with my daughter to speed up. In a word: frustrated.

Imaginary Friends

Laura Peterson introduces us to a few of her favorite imaginary friends.

Here’s something that I love: finding similar characters in very dissimilar books, and mentally comparing them. I’ve been thinking about this recently in regard to a very specific type of character; that of the imaginary friend. What a brilliant creation! Imaginary friends can provide dialogue, companionship, and plot movement, but they don’t have to look like real people or behave like them, and no one else in the story can even see them. So much potential for fun and creativity! Here are some imaginary friends I’ve enjoyed meeting in stories recently.

Something to Do with Your Kids

Prayer is one of those things that is hard for us grown ups and even harder to teach well to the kids in our lives. I came across this idea this week from a friend: popsicle stick prayers. Put the names of people and things you want to pray for onto tongue depressors or popsicle sticks and put them in a jar to pull out one at a time and pray for them.

And Something to Watch

Things I learned when I lived in Alaska: September and March are the best time for the Aurora Borealis. Also, there really are people with tin hats who think the Auroras are aliens trying to communicate with us–no really, they lived just up the road. Well now you can catch the Aurora Borealis year round–from space. Because NASA.