Do We Need Books and Stories?

Do we? I think so.

How else did we manage to pass down information from generation to generation for so many decades? It was through writing, and writing in books. We need books.

And we need stories too. The unique morals, values and beliefs that each of us have within us today were often taught to us in entertaining yet easy-to-remember ways- by means of a story.

From youth, we learned the consequences of lying from the "Boy Who Cried Wolf". Everyone remembers that story today and when we would repeatedly lie and lie to our parents they would remind us of what happened to the little boy who did the same.

We learned the importance of obedience from "Little Red Riding Hood". When we didn't follow the rules our parents or teachers set out for us we were reminded about the possible consequences of disobedience by the girl who talked to a stranger when she was not allowed to.

We learned about the value of hard work from the "Three Little Pigs". And realised the importance of doing your best- because the effort pays off and it might just save your life.

And as the stories go on, the list goes on.

The benefits we live off of everyday in our generation because we have learned to read and write, and share stories and books is massive.

Each country and religion has it's own stories associated with it. In Pakistan, so many of our stories' morals are about respecting parents. And because of that- respect shown to parents in that region is highly valued and recognised.

A Muslim knows the value of humility because of the stories we read about it from the Quran. And because of that, we are constantly reminded to be modest and humble everyday.

Stories from the past and even the stories we tell our friends and family everyday play a huge role in our lives. It's obvious we wouldn't be the same without them. We wouldn't believe the same things, we wouldn't each have these unique identities that make us different and interesting.

We wouldn't have learned the same things: sometimes you can't always learn from your own experiences- and you got to learn from other's.

We share books and stories and yes, each story may be different from country to country or religion to religion or family to family or even person to person. But it's undeniable, that yes, while these stories do individualize us, and makes us all different from each other, they bring us together at the same time...

We need them. Trust me, it's for sure.