Creating a nature-friendly story

We talked about how stories can be harmful to the environment. Why are the wolf and the snake always seen as bad animals? As a group, we created a new story about a snake where the snake is OK - not so bad.

We should consider telling stories which might help to clear up some misconceptions about animals who are always seen as bad guys. Here is our story:

The Night the Little Girl Danced with the Snake.

Once upon a time a little girl lived with her parents in a small house at the edge of the forest.

One very dark night at the end of October, a very hungry snake slid into the village searching for something to eat. He saw the little girl all by herself in the middle of the house lit only by the light of a single candle.

The snake slid closer and closer. His tongue flicked the air as he searched for food.

The little girl saw the snake but was too young to be afraid. Instead of running away, she held out a candy to share with the snake. The snake was surprised because he had never been offered candies before. So he ate the candy and licked his lips. It was very good. The little girl offered him another and he ate that too. She gave him another and another. By this time they were both smiling at each other and the snake had wrapped himself around the girl to get a closer look at his new friend.

Just then the mother came into the house and when she saw the snake wrapped around the girl she screamed to her husband. The husband came running into the house with his machete raised to kill the snake. But he was afraid to cut the snake for fear he would cut his daughter by mistake. So he thought of something else. He ran to the corner of the room to retrieve his flute.

The little girl and the snake seemed to be unaware of all the excitement. The went on sharing candies together and smiling at each other..

The father began to play his flute and the snake began to sway his head to the music. The mother began to sing along with the flute because the music seemed to be working. The girl noticed that the snake had a rattle on his tail so she began to shake the rattle and hum to the music as well. The snake began to hiss along to the music.

This continued for some time. The father played the flute. The mother sang. The snake hissed and danced. The little girl shook the rattle and sang and swayed to the music.

Villagers heard all the music coming from the house and began to look in to see what was happening. Soon all the villagers had joined in making music along with the quartet within the house.

Snakes from the forest were attracted to the music from the village. When they saw the friendly dance taking place within the house, they too started to sway, shake their tails and hiss to the music. They moved to the house so they all could be together at the concert.

Soon all the forest was dancing to the music. They had a great time that night.

And to this day, one night a year on Halloween, the snakes and the villagers put aside all their bad feeling and dance the night away as friends.