Storytelling for Posterity

If I asked you to tell me a true story from your life, what comes immediately to your mind? Whatever that story is, you have my permission to share it with your children and grandchildren, no matter how much they would rather look at their IPhone.

I have a quote taped up on my wall where I can see it each time I sit at my computer. It reads, “The future belongs to storytellers.” Sorry that I can’t remember where I read or heard that, but I’m certain it was from a reliable source.

If I didn’t believe it before, I sure do now since seeing National Public Radio personality Ira Glass. He appeared at Barbara Mann Hall last week and simply talked with us for a while and played stories from his popular program, “This American Life.”  I was mesmerized, just as I am when I listen to his show on WGCU, FM 90.1 on Saturday from 1-2 and Sunday from Noon to 1 PM.

Glass says the show got off the ground when he and some others posited that public radio didn’t always have to have the aroma of broccoli – that is, didn’t always have to be elevating ones intellect.

“We sometimes think of our program as a documentary show for people who normally hate documentaries. A public radio show for people who don't necessarily care for public radio.”  Their web page explains.

The stories are about every day people who have encountered unusual circumstances, and they tell their stories with Ira adding his slant and asking the subjects what they think about what has happened. There’s nothing else quite like it.

Take the young doctor who took over for a small town GP who was in prison for murdering his father. Coincidentally, they had the same last name, and the doctor in prison was beloved by his community. This sent his replacement on a quest to find out just what happened to cause this man to snap and commit such a crime. We are taken by the hand through this small town as we meet its residents and accompany the young doctor.  Like every segment I’ve ever heard, I laughed and gasped and shook my head in wonder.

Anyway, all through Glass’s talk at Barbara Mann, I found myself fantasizing about doing what he does. Taking an idea and running with it – seeing where it goes. Or, meeting someone with an interesting story and getting all the details that only the one who experienced it can tell – while I, of course give my input.

Glass was asked if the interview subjects are coached since they are always so engaging. His answer was priceless: “The best stories seem to happen to people who are good storytellers.”

Have you come up with your story yet? While you continue thinking about it, I’ll share one that has been handed down through my mother’s side of the family. It takes place during the Civil War, and my great-grandfather is the 8-year-old star. Word had spread through his small Mississippi farm community that Union soldiers were on their way, and were taking anything they needed or wanted from the defenseless women, children and old men. My great grandfather’s mother told him to take the family’s mule into the deep woods and hide him well. The family would starve without the mule to help them plow their field and plant food. So, the 8-year-old boy did his job very well. So well that no one could find him for 3 days. You see, they had failed to explain to him that he could come home after he hid the mule. So, it took the entire community 3 days to locate the boy and mule after the Yankees had departed.

Obviously, there is no one still alive who can vouch for this story, but I think of it like one of those that is passed down through cultures without a written language. That is how they endure for generations.

So, how about the next time you’re sitting around with your family, you look up from your laptop or Smart Phone and say, “Did I ever tell you folks the story about…….