Day 46 - June 8 (2 Sites)

First Author: Brian Hastings - in 97 degree heat Brian worked to complete a  work highlighting God among us. The heavens opened and washed away his work before it could be recorded.


Sculptor: Pam Rumancik

Location: Chicago

Parish: the world

There is a story I know.  It’s about the earth and how it floats in space on the back of a turtle.  I’ve heard this story many times, and each time someone tells the story, it changes. 

Sometimes the change is simply in the voice of the storyteller. 

Sometimes the change is in the details.  Sometimes in the order of events. 

Other times it’s the dialogue or the response of the audience.  But in all the tellings of all the tellers, the world never leaves the turtle’s back.  And the turtle never swims away.

One time, it was in Prince Rupert, I think, a young girl in the audience asked about the turtle and the earth.  If the earth was on the back of a turtle, what was below the turtle?  Another turtle, the storyteller told her.  And below that turtle?  Another turtle.  And below that?  Another turtle.

The girl began to laugh, enjoying the game, I imagine.  So how many turtles are there? she wanted to know.  The storyteller shrugged.  No one knows for sure, he told her, but it’s turtles all the way down.


Thomas King begins his book, The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative, with this delightful question and answer.