TheBanyanTree: Tell Us Your Stories

[LaRose Karr]

Tell Us Your Stories by LaRose Karr

Years ago in 1996, I was a novice in the world of the internet.  I wanted to
join writers groups and so I did.  I stumbled upon the first one by clicking
on a link on a humor list.

It took me to a place where people gathered to tell their stories around a
campfire.  Tell us your stories they said!  My very first internet
experience.

And I complied.

The list owner's brother was an atheist and I am a Christian.

I soon was run off the list.  I received a scathing note from him.

"Why do you put the copyright symbol after your name?" He asked.  "No one
will ever want to read what you write.  I seem to remember you are some
strange religious freak who sees signs from God at every stoplight."

I liked his words so much I used them as a signature line for a while.

"Sees signs from God at every stoplight."

The years have passed and the atheist is gone.  He died only two short years
later after the incident.

He made choices in life.  Taught kids as he did every week, enjoyed his
students, took great delight in them as he did his own family; one friday he
night attended a party where he shared a cocaine spoon and received a
tainted microscopic bit of blood infected with Hepatitis C which in turn led
to his death.

The list inspired by his story telling spirit was my writing start and
introduction to the internet. I will ever be grateful.

I have gone on to be a published writer, but still a novice loving to write.

Many years ago on a new place called the internet, there was just a simple
statement.  "Tell us your Stories."