We say we don't read, us, big people. No need for writers- it's a dying occupation. There's no time for dreaming, bills must be paid. Writing is a thing of the past, reserved for lazying bohemians. Who needs good grammar, idle spell-checks? After all, we're too busy living our everyday lives. Creative jobs, pish, there's no money in it, people say. But that's just not true, is it? We yearn for stories, all day long: how else do we connect? How else can we learn about our present and from our past, from each other's mistakes, and thus grow? How else do we escape for a while, relax our mind-muscles? Truth is, we want stories. All the time. We secretly need the magic in our lives, we thrive on hope that the best is yet to come (even though only hard work can pull it off). Stories are all around us, like wi-fi. We want to know how our loved ones' days have been. Did our children enjoy school? What happened there? What did they learn? We miss our friends, please, PLEASE recap all that's been going on; Pick up where you left off last time; How's that weird new neighbour settling in; Are you going to take that job halfway across the world; For the love of God, have you STILL not broken off that affair; No, I don't like that politician, do you know what he's done? It's a big conspiracy, let me tell you... ready...? We dive into them, these stories, whenever we can. We may not realise it, but they're there, like little angels, and we grab them from books, newspapers, magazines... perhaps more so through TV, Netflix, the cinema, radio, Social Media and the whole rest of the infinitifely wide web. In the world of education, teachers use stories to trick kids into fun and effective learning, just like adults prefer stories to memorising stone-cold facts too. When it comes to business, think of marketing, advertising, sales pitches. A concise and poignant story is the blood that runs through the body of business, it's what keeps it alive. Where would lawyers be without a tale to tell in court? Without context? And don't forget our heroic therapists...they need stories like the water cycle needs condensation. They need parables, analogies, metaphors, comparisons, to spin all the yarns they can spin. How else can they get their angst-ridden patients to snap out of their traumatising miseries, see their reflection through someone else's eyes? Stories: writing, telling, reading, sharing, learning, connecting. Stories: our lives depend on them. Please, let's never forget the importance of stories.