"What if" by Stian Hole
“What if?” – the starting point of every story. Norway’s Guest of Honour motto is captured in a poetic text by Stian Hole, celebrating imagination, curiosity and new perspectives.
What if
by Stian Hole
What if we looked up from our phones and paid more attention to other people?
What if we looked strangers in the eyes, and said: Hei!
What if we could see the planet Earth from a distance? Would that make us kinder and more patient?
What if
What if you and I went on an expedition?
What if we trip over a stumbling stone and find a secret garden with a door that leads us to rooms we have not seen before?
Or, what if we fall down a rabbit hole?
What if I had turned right instead of left?
What if I could go back, like in storytelling, and choose the other way?
What if I could stop time, like in a photograph, and take a closer look at the details?
What if I fall behind – will you wait for me?
What if I get sick and die before I tell you all the things I want to say?
What if I always say NO! and my best friend always says YES!
What if the war was over, and people could return to their homes, their schools, their gardens and their everyday life?
What if
What if none of my teeth are loose before I start school?
What if I had to push an elephant up the stairs every morning?
What if
What if the clown in the circus is no longer able to make people laugh, although he tries so hard?
What if no one remembers to pet the cat?
What if inspiration is not something you sit and wait for, but rather another word for paying attention and being curious and sensitive to your surroundings?
What if the reader makes his or her own version of a story?
What if – one day – all the colors fade?
What if you think of the oceans, the mountains, the forests, and animals as your own personal belongings? Would you care more for them then?
What if a polite little girl in a cute pink dress disappears one day into the wall in the living room and nobody can hear her, even when she screams?
What if little girls no longer want to be princesses, but presidents or brain scientists?
What if a tiny violin player settled down and lived and practiced every evening inside my ear?
What if I could see the world through your eyes? I wonder what it would look like.
What if a big brown bear came out of the blue to sleep in my bed?
What if we build a boat to sail away in?
What if I, one day, walk into the living room and hit the old china vase with a hammer?
What if we put your mother and father in a suitcase and send them to Hawaii?
What if you were the first man on the moon, and have to pee?
What if the youngest member of the family of burglars refuse to steal from his best friend?
What if
What if our children
What if our children grow up to be different from us?
What if our children are not small adults who should be brought up to be polite?
What if our boat, one morning, sails into a narrow inlet we did not know about?
What if someth3. hing wonderful will happen?
What if
What if it is our imagination
What if it is our imagination that will save us – not our leaders – and help us make this world a better place?
And finally:
What if the buzzing, beautiful, tender, wild, surprising, weird, colorful, vital, funny, mind-opening, strange diversity of children’s books all have one thing in common:
They look at you and whisper:
