Stories Talk Good
Life is a story.
I don’t know why we’d care about stories so much if it wasn’t. You can buy the dribble about stories being purely escapist but no one actually believes that; we’re just afraid it’s true.
No, we love stories because life is a story.
The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor. - Jonathan Haidt
That’s why I sobbed silently (to hide from my brothers) during The Return of the King the first time I saw it in theaters. This story has something to say. I may not know it consciously, but that’s because when it comes to real tragic, beautiful, irritating life, words often fail, so we tell stories. Because stories talk good.
In a world that oscillates between awkwardly puzzling to altogether mysterious, stories become a light under the covers in a dark, scary room where monsters hide under the bed, in the closet, and on cable news networks. Stories can do this in a way that bypasses the brain and speaks right down the aorta to the heart. Because stories talk good.
Good stories can turn things upside down: I’ll start writing for me, to myself, offering my wounds, hurts, lessons, and pain, and then a miracle happens: in my selfish soul-searching, someone else finds themselves: “You too?” is the architecture of all great stories.
This website is my project to tell my stories: stories about my family, stories about my friends, my community, and my home.
Life is a story, stories talk good, so a life can talk good.
That’s my hope.
This is inspiring, Sam.