Imagine if you were running for a high profile, political office. Imagine (for a moment) that.
What story would you tell your country men and women, about you - your life?
What’s YOUR story?
We all have a story. (Wait. No. Scratch that. Scratch that.)
We all have stories (plural) - stories to tell, to share (if we care to)
Stories to tell (history)
Stories to be told (future), God willing (some future in front of us = more stories to live, create, work, and re-work. We are all story works in progress
All the Worlds a stage, we are merely Players - - - Living Stories
^^^^^
Most of us grew up (I hope you did, like I did) with Parents and Grandparents who told us stories, read to us… at the very least, bedtime stories.
The Night Before Christmas = a special story, a one night each year story = super special story. Magic, pure magic. Because of this story, as a child I listened, actively listened for a man in a sled with deer attached. I expected to hear - touch down on our family home roof. (As an adult living in today’s world, think about it… it almost seems creepy. I mean really! Old Man in sled with deer on the roof of your home. What? WTF?) But no, STORY - the power of story = magic, pure, solid gold. Not creepy in the least. Power of story - MAGIC.
Green Eggs and Ham = word play, fun, joy, it might make for a good, modern day rap song. A joyous riff. Fun with ideas and words. Green eggs and ham and Sam I Ams.
Story, fun, timeless, power of story.
The Big Bad Wolf = a cautionary tale, a way to live your life story. Do we build our houses with hay, stick or brick? Which is the better way to go? Will we be prepared (or not) when the big bad wolf wind blows? Stories to live by. Lessons for life story. Thoughtful, parable to teach us something. Timeless power of story…
^^^^^
And then, most of us, we grow up.
We take flight. Ever more runway behind us.
We (most of us, I hope) grow older and maybe we pick up bits of wisdom (if we’re paying attention, nose and feet, smelling, feeling - ground, solid ground) along the way.
I recently heard an important man describe our country, the United State of America, as - an idea.
An idea is the stuff of story. A building block…
America as a story?
Coming to a theater near you. “America, the story”
Imagine, a citizen of Earth, blindfolded, spun around. Amnesia perhaps. An old guy sans sled and deer, he lands on a roof somewhere. Your roof.
He asks… (I’m thinking of a Woody Allen character, the movie Sleeper. If you never saw it. Check it out. You will like it.)
Sleeper, Woody Allen's character, he landed on your roof. He sees you and asks, “Where am I?”
You answer, “You’re in America, Woody. The United States of America”
And Woody asks, “What’s that? The United States of America? What’s that?”
USA, USA - what’s YOUR story, USA?
What would you say? What story would you tell, Woody, the old man, who landed on the roof of your home, USA?
USA, a country, one of one hundred and ninety five, countries on Earth.
Country stories,
they come in many different flavors. Baskin and Robbins, one hundred and ninety five - country stories on this planet, Earth.
Want a sample, story loving ice cream customer? (Baskin Robbins where I grew up used to give out, micro spoon, tiny taste samples before purchase. My buddies and I, we would stand and stare, nose to glass. We wanted to try them all.)
Some samples (stories) taste sweet. Some story samples taste sour. Some story samples (what’s going on there?) are hard to describe.
Nations as stories = People stories. Some good, some not so good. Many sad, and a few of them (USA, the idea, that idea, what started as an idea) - USA is a true original story. Unique among the many flavors of Nation stories. USA, USA.
345 million people, United States of America, we’re writing our collective story - even today.
What will the next chapter look like? What story do you want to tell, the world, USA?
>>>>>
A Talking Head that I listen too,
He has kids, two boys
He says, again and again
He wants his kids, more than anything
To be able to tell stories. To know the power of stories.
Stories will take his kids, your kids, your grandkids - places
Stories can open doors and take us all for a lifetime of very good rides
No waiting in lines
Parents, Countrymen, Courtywomen, tell me a story
What is YOUR story? What is your families story? What is your school’s story?
What is your country’s story?
This story, it’s yours. This story (USA), it’s mine. This story, it is ours (to tell).
It’s our time to write the book, to tell our stories, to write our next chapter.
This time, our now… it is our 15 minutes of fame.
What story do you want future generations to remember you and I by?
Story. Tell a good one Countrymen, Countrywomen, and kitty cats and puppy dogs too.
Story.
Your Story + My Story = Our Story.
The power of Story.
<<<<<
Photo: my very bad (old) photo
It’s hard to see. It’s all washed out.
But that’s me. Young Scott, standing atop an old wood crate in our driveway, behind some canvas that used to cover a sandbox.
I repurposed it all, crate and canvas, as stage plus backdrop.
I am holding a Mexican marionette. A good hombre.
A gift my grandparents brought me from a trip where they crossed border when visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Texas.
I am putting on a show (telling a story) for an audience of one. Jeff, a Neighbor from the next street over and a couple houses down.
Story. Stories.
I guess that I’ve always loved stories.
One of my aunts knew a gentleman who worked as a pastor of a small church (later in life). He wrote his story and had a limited number of books printed. His story was passed to family and friends. She showed me her copy of one person's story. I think he wanted to get thoughts out of his mind and put the meaning into something external. I'm seeing parallels here :)
YES! I think people fear to speak their story because they believe nobody will listen or care. We underestimate the power of our common threads.