Stories

There's a "storytelling" trend that I've seen cropping up in various places in my culture. It has crept into my classwork, my blog-world, my church, even my casual conversations. I'm not sure where it began, or if it always has been and I'm only just now seeing it, but I find it interesting for a few reasons.

First, I thought I came up with this idea. No really, I'm just that arrogant. I wrote a series of blog posts back in January about the importance of telling stories both in my life and, really, for all of us. As they often do, this idea got a little too big for me to handle, so I decided it needed to cook a bit longer before I was ready to share it.

In the meantime, I began to realized that this was not a new idea, it was actually a pretty popular one. While a (not-so-small) part of me was a little disappointed that I wasn't as original as I had thought, I am actually really excited that that there are so many people out there dedicated to telling stories.

Mostly.

Let me clarify, it's not just any story that I'm interested in. I'm interested in your story, and that guy over there's story; the "boring" ones...

There are millions of these "normal" and seemingly unoriginal stories whispering in and out of existence every day, unnoticed and, often, untold. But, if you look beyond that "just one of the crowd" disguise that we construct so early,

(and spend the rest of our lives trying to deconstruct)

...then you realize that yours and his are not unoriginal stories at all. They are unique and complex, filled with conflict, love, pain, intrigue, failure, disappointment, triumph, growth and even adventure. It's Raiders of the Lost Ark wrapped in The English Patient.

So I'm happy we're all telling stories, even if I did not come up with the idea.