Origin+Myth

__ How Trees Became So Tall __ Once upon a time, when the plants of the forest could still talk (a story for a different time and place), trees were no taller than the rest of the plants of the forest. They were remarkably unremarkable looking plants, in fact. They were nowhere near being as noticeable as they are now. This is the story of how the trees came to be the largest plants in the forest. What the trees lacked in size, shape, or beauty, they easily more than made up for in personality. They had so much personality, in fact, that the rest of the plants of the forest could not stand them. The trees felt as though they always had to be the center of attention, gossip, and controversy at all times. They were so obnoxious that they were considered to be the greatest bane of the forest when the berry bushes and the ferns were at peace (another story for a different time and place) which was more often than not. War has never been popular in the forest The first problem with the trees was that they all despised each other. They never came to violence (except for Barney and Harold, yet another story for another time and place), but the dislike was always plain to see. The trees avoided coming into contact with another tree at almost all costs, and if it should happen both trees simply acted as though the other tree did not exist. Thus, there was always a division between the trees of the forest, with each one gossiping about all of the other trees of the forest. The second problem with the trees was their total lack of social skills. The trees were never at odds with the other plants of the forest, but the trees had no social skills whatsoever, and that made it even more difficult to bear their presence. If a certain ivy bush was having trouble spreading her roots, you could be sure that all the trees in the forest would be gossiping about it within the day. These problems were made even larger by the fact that the other plants of the forest are all rather self-conscious beings, and they often are very unstable as a result of that. So, every time a tree would make a sly joke about a shortcoming of another plant, it was as though the remark itself would kill the other plant. As harsh as it sounds, these happenings were a perfect example of why a fragile flower must be nurtured and watered to be brought back to health. Then, just when the rest of the forest thought that their situation could not get any worse, it did. These creatures came along, and wreaked havoc on all of the plants, including the trees. These creatures were called burds, and they truly were yet another nuisance (except for Michael, but that is yet another story for a time and place different than this one). They would sit on the branches of the plants, eat their foliage, cause damage to their limbs, relieve themselves on their roots, and many other terrible things. It was as though the Great Spirit had sent down a curse from the skies to chastise the plants of the forest for the great arguments that had been occurring lately The situation of the forest had come to a turning point. Something had to be done. Everywhere, plants were harming themselves because of the loathing they felt for their situation. Vines had stopped climbing, flowers had stopped blooming, berries and fruits had stopped ripening, and everywhere the livelihood of the forest was dim. The problem was that every plant was hesitant to change, because togetherness was the only way they had survived until now. If they were to survive the burd attack, they would need to be as harmonious as ever. Thus, they could not simply ask the trees to leave, and that would not solve the burd problem either. Either way, something had to be done to rid the forest of this predicament. Every species of plant except the trees made peace in order to find a solution. Finally, the combinative efforts of nearly all the plants paid off. An answer had been found. The best part of it was that both problems would be solved with one action. Everyone waited for the opportunity, the chance to finally solve the greatest predicament the forest had ever seen. The next day, it was the same as ever. The burds were parasitic, the trees were annoying, and everything was the same. Suddenly, a great cry went up from all the plants other than the trees. All at once, the burds rode there wings up into the sky in fright. As this happened, the rest of plants the plants began to shrink. The shrunk and shrunk, until they were no taller than the roots of the great trees. As their fear settled, the burds came back to down to the forest, and the spell was broken. The trees would be forced to carry the burds and stand alone for ever after. Thus, the two problems were solved. All the other plants were free of the terrible onslaught of burds, and they were free of the miserable old trees. The trees would forever be forced to deal with the nuisance of the burds, but also to only speak to each other and bicker amongst themselves for the rest of eternity. That is how the trees came to be the largest plants of the forest. As you can now see, it is not a blessing but a curse to be so large and unwieldy. Fortunately, the trees would learn to enjoy housing the burds (the spelling has since changed to birds), and they would come to live in harmony together with the rest of the forest, though only when they lost their gift of speech, which is, again, yet another story for different time and place.

9/24/09 Reflection: Origin Myth I definitely feel as though I could have saved myself some points and really helped the quality of my story just by proofreading better and more often. That is not to say that I did not proofread at all, but I only read it silently to myself and I only did it once. I lost two cheap points just from stupid mistakes and other conventional errors. Overall, I am happy with the story. I also think that the story itself was interesting, but still it was enhanced by the way I presented it. Next time, I think it would be smart to read it out loud to myself and also do so multiple times. I think that is the only obvious way for me to improve at this time. There are other things, and I can only hope to write this well consistently, but as of now, I will focus on my conventions and such errors in order to better my writing.