All Ways

a story for young people
about generation and regeneration

by Clayton Bess

Read All Ways on the Web.

So ill that I thought I was dying just before my 70th birthday, I began putting all of my writings onto the World Wide Web so that they would be accessible to anyone caring to look for them.

That caused me to pull out quite a few old manuscripts that were written before I bought my first computer, also old floppy disks from my first computers. The title page of All Ways says the copyright was 1988, and so it must exist on a 5 1/4 floppy in that old plastic box over there on the shelf. I doubt that I could ever find a way to retrieve it from there, and the story is so short that it's just easier to retype it.

It's a great way to reread one's old stories, fingertap by fingertap. And I must say that All Ways did not disappoint its author, all these decades later. It is a story about passing-down from one generation to the next: passing down stories, passing down information, passing down values. It's also a story of ageing and changing, of natural erosion and intervention.

I guess I must have been in my late 30s or early 40s when I wrote it. It was after TRACKS, I remember. This title page has Kurt Busiek as my representative at Scott Meredith Agency. Kurt left agenting to become a cartoonist, and when I googled him just a while ago, I discovered that was a great thing for him. He has been very successful as a cartoonist.

Meanwhile, I never could find anyone who wanted to publish All Ways no matter how rich and profound I believe it to be. Some readers have complained that it is too adult for kids, but I disagree. Too many words? Too many big words? How else do kids get introduced to wonderful words, wonderful big words, and wonderful big generational ideas and values without having them read to them by their parents?

"What does resemble mean?"

"Resemble? Oh, when something looks like something else. Like you resemble both your mom and your dad. You've got your mom's hair and your dad's eyes. See what I mean? The rock resembles an eagle. It looks like an eagle."

Go ahead and read this story to your kids. Ask them to draw the pictures that come to their minds as you read. I can't draw myself, but in my head I see great pictures of canyons and majestic rocks and cliffs that I really really wish I COULD draw.

The photograph at the top of the story is by Kent Mason. I wish I could draw that. I asked permission from Kent to use his photo, and he courteously said yes.

So read and enjoy All Ways on the Web, and maybe google "southwest canyons" or "Canyon de Chelly" or "Zion images" to see some great photos that other people have taken.

Bob/Clayton