The First Talesman

There was once a man who told a tale.

It happened a long time ago, because this was the first man ever to tell a tale, and the way he told it was unlike the way men tell tales nowadays — he used gestures more than words, and the look on his face and grunts and groans. It was really more like a performance than anything we would call “telling a story.”

But he was the first man ever to tell a tale. He told it well, and so what he told was true. If a tale is well told then it must be true, because it’s impossible to lie when you tell a tale well.

The first man ever to tell a tale was a black man because he was an African — because the first men on Earth were all Africans. The Black man was first-born of the Brothers; after the Black brother the Brown brother was born, and after the Brown brother came the Yellow brother. The last-born brothers were the Red brother and the White brother, but I don’t know which of them came last. There is no shame to come last though. But there is a great honor in coming first. Therefore all men owe honor and pride of place to our African brothers who are our eldest brothers, the First Men in the world.

So I wanted to offer as my first post my thanks and respect to our older brothers and most of all to that man — Earth’s first talesman.

Thank you, my long-ago colleague. You started it all.