Introduction

The Author is the origin of every story humanity has ever encountered. Each word that enters the mind, that falls from the tongue, that is written by the hand, has been penned by the Author’s eternal ink. Jet black streams become the colorful landscapes in our lives; the pen transforms into the paintbrush as we contour the words with vibrant hues and give shape to the text that defines us. And it is because these words originate from the same pen that we see so many similarities in the stories we tell, whether between neighbors that live next door to one another or neighbors we find across the globe.

Most of what the Author has written has fallen through the cracks of time. As easily as words are conceived, the womb of the mind recycles them; the veins of every new story are filled with the ink blood of stories past.

There are some stories that have defied the passage of time. They stand as a testament to our shared humanity, remaining alive in our minds and informing our understanding of the world. We pass them along to each new generation, who in turn absorb the lessons of the words and honor the pages of the past.

Although certain elements and themes repeat themselves in our stories, the way they are written varies greatly from place to place. Jews, Christians, Muslims, and those who have grown up in cultural contexts surrounded by the Abrahamic faiths will generally be more familiar with stories from a text such as the Bible, whereas audiences from India and surrounding Southeastern Asian countries will likely have a deeper understanding of texts such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which are unique to their culture. These enduring words collide in this storybook, as the invisible threads woven between stories around the world begin to reveal themselves. The ink from the Author’s pen forms the words in our mouths and in our hands, and flows freely between the people of the earth.

A vast white expanse lies before the Author, blank pages spreading beyond the corners of our imagination, waiting to be filled with words. And as the ink of the eternal pen flows, I pick up my own pen to tell you these tales.

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