Saturday, October 30, 2010

Storytelling

As some of you know I started this blog so my friends and family could keep track of my travels through the Middle East this past spring. Well my many college travels are over but my experiences and the memories remain.

I feel blessed by these memories and sometimes the ability to express them in a way that others can feel them come alive again.
I ask God to remind me of what I have seen and heard-and I will have flashes-glimpses into moments.
Those moments that are unexpected, that put you in awe and amazement- fill us with joy and laughter- or weakens your knees and makes your heart turn to lead- all significant -all should be told.

We live in a culture where story telling is something people do when they are done living their lives; for the elderly who can have no other occupation but to reflect on the life they had a share it with others.

But in many cultures and in ancient times, before the square boxes took up space and possession of our time and minds, it was a source of entertainment.
–a way to stay connected as humans –to know where we have come from-where we are going.
It was education: to learn the history and identity in clans, families, and countries. Through stories the younger learned life lessons and morals from those older and wiser. Many of the great speakers and leaders have told stories, parables, folklore, and personal or collective histories
-it is a discipline; a discipline Christ was familiar with and used to teach.

So here is my plan:
I am beginning a discipline of storytelling.
As memories come to me I will write, share, and hopefully develop a way to keep these memories alive. They will mostly be recent as in the last 4 or 5 years since that it when most of my personal adventures have been.

To those who may actually read this: as I tell these stories feel free to share your own. With a little work we can create a discipline of storytelling.

I have asked people in my travels what they want me to do when I come back to America
-most often they say one of two things:

1. remember us
or
2. tell others about us

-So this is my effort to honor that.

3 comments:

  1. I like this plan. And as a person who has known you in this time frame, I'm quite looking forward to this.

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  2. I love your idea as well. I know because of tv I missed a story my Grampa was trying to tell me because I choose to pay more attention to the tv and missed how he came here to the U.S. to work in the 50's and how he used to cross the border and where he went and how los angeles looked in the 1950's from an immigrants point of view. I regret that now cos its not like I can ask him about it.

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