Someone recently said to me that their story was not that interesting after telling me some very interesting things about himself and his family genealogy. Also, he said that he wished that people had someone designated to write the story of their lives - but he was talking about other people, not himself.
He genuinely did not consider this family genealogy story interesting. It isn't. It is freaking awesome to me!
At the end of the discussion, I realized how people like him and I, and a great number of others, devalue our stories and our life achievements. Although I am a self-professed journaler and lover of writing anything and everything on pretty paper, I, too, think "what's the point of holding on to so many journals? Who’s going to care about who I was and what I did or witnessed during this age?"
Well, surprisingly, a lot of people will as I am, and ALL of you reading this are, a living survivor of a tumultuous, transformative age. Like our great-grandparents living through the rapidly transformative industrial age, we too are living in an age where we are quickly evolving and developing in different areas of politics and economy, to social justice and lifestyle trends.
Since this discussion with him, I now feel like there is a point to sharing our stories. How much would I love to discover the journal of the grandmother I never ever got to meet? I just found out she never made it to the age of 45. How awesome would it be to find out that an ancestor had left behind a record of their life experiences, thoughts and wildest dreams? I'd darn well pay a pretty penny for that as a direct relation.
The way I see it is this. I love bookstores and to me we are like the books in a bookstore. We meet people organically who are intrigued by our blurb (via the art of small talk) and want to get to know our content better. So they invest in us to do so.
With that, I'd like to put an end to this way of thinking of myself, and I'd love it if you would join me and say this about yourself. The only thing for you to say, and believe, is "I am an interesting story to tell."
Because it's highly probable, you are.
(Funny, but I'm suddenly in the mood to listen to Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind")
