I remember as a kid loving story time whether it be at the library where we sat in a painted castle made out of cardboard or in my parents' giant bed curled up next to one of them, listening for the billionth time to "Three Billy Goats Gruff." The even pace of someone reading a story and maybe even using different voices for characters always brought the book to life in a completely new way.
To think that on a flat sheet of paper so much magic existed truly amazed me.
I also remember learning to read and beginning to view books differently. I looked at them as hard labor and something I didn't want to do unless forced.
Today this is still true of emails, those annoying little buzzes and dings that, if not silenced, bother us all day and night. Reports, asks, fires to put out and even bills to pay. Email is viewed as a never ending laborious task of to-dos.
Back in 2010 I remember one such email recipient, he was a client and never could seem to get his head above email water. I would constantly send emails and receive nothing in return. So I would send another and yet another with the same response, nothing.
On status calls with this client I would start by asking about my emails to which I would hear, "You sent me something? I'm buried over here and haven't gotten to them yet."
One day in a fit of frustration I asked him to open his email and go to June 17th at 8:45AM. I then told him exactly what this email contained and what I needed from him to move forward. He promptly gave me the information I was asking for. I felt we were onto something so I asked to look at June 20th at 11:18AM and again told him my needs and received a prompt answer! This was magic!
I got off the phone with a deep satisfaction. I immediately went to my boss's office and regaled the tale of my solution to the email bottleneck I'd been facing. He laughed and said "so this guy needs a phone call not an email." My face fell. Here I was thinking I had beat the system when really what I learned is that everyone communicates differently.
I thought I'd created adult story time for this client when really what I did was call a person and communicate my needs.
I share this because no matter how young or old we are nothing takes the place of a human voice sharing needs versus another device ding.
When I think back to story time in my youth I see it as that too. A moment in time where everyone stopped and listened to feel connected to something outside themselves.
Why did I really love story time? To connect with my parents. To wrap myself in the story and have a vested interest in the ending. Sounds an awful lot like a phone call or face to face conversation to me.
As for the library, who wouldn't want to sit in a cardboard castle?