Stories of a Lifetime
Stories of a Lifetime
A Sixty-Word SZEN Story:
After 50 attempts to start listening to the grind of “eeeeeeeea” it was decided to look under the hood. We tried again with all of us looking at the cold dark engine that refused to turn over and silently wishing we were still in bed, protected from the 15° temperature. Then Dad tried jiggling the wires, muttered something, and vrooooom.
And more…
Stories are our way of not just remembering an event, but adding life and emotion to the facts, so that others can see what we have witnessed and maybe “feel” what we felt. Stories let us embellish and dramatize the characters and situations so that it feels like it’s happening right now, again.
I love telling stories and I love writing and listening to them too. And when I’m with my siblings – all five of my brothers – we inevitably will start to tell stories about Dad. It doesn’t matter that we’ve heard them a million times before or that the storyteller’s contagious laughter turns the shortest event into a Hollywood screenplay; it’s always a joy.
When Dad was still with us, he’d laugh at the stories too and sometimes dispute the exaggeration with his version of what happened. It always made the story better as new facts would be added, turning each of those special moments in time into a lasting and joyful memory. I miss it. I miss him too.
May the story never die…
Szenippet: When we share a story with the person that’s the star of the story we give a gift – we acknowledge that they touched our lives.