Our stories are as unique as we are.
Our stories are as unique as our backgrounds, where we grew up, where we relocated to, the places we have visited, the things we have done…. our experiences, our hobbies, our pretensions, our ambitions, fears, our desires, our thrills, our disappointments, our victories and our defeats.
We each have a unique personality and a unique history.
Our stories are part of our unique personality and our unique history.
This is why every life is filled with stories that are fresh to someone else’s ears and worth hearing.
In A Short Stint in Advertising, Ajay Sachdev shares his personal experience of what it was like to work in MAA, one of the hottest advertising agencies in Bangalore.
In A Facebook Faceoff, Jacinta Correa shares a story about sparring with her son about her Facebook addiction.
In A Passage Into Time, Chetan Shah lets us know what it was like to be one of 12 Assistant Directors on the movie Passage to India.
In The Colors of Life, John Paraskevopoulos shares his experience of high school ditch day with us.
Stories can be about chapters in our lives, about events, about interactions.
Every minute there is a story waiting to happen.
A homeless man walked into the Baskin Robbins where Tanita worked two summers ago, and it became a story.
My brother got into an auto to go to the railway station and board a train for a school trip and it became a story.
Stories are family legacies.
They unite the past with the future.
They can take us back to another time and another place.
Every family has its favorite stories.
And there are master story tellers in every family.
We call the master story teller in our family Masala Master, because he never fails to spice up his stories with a little exaggeration and well, masala.
Eccentricities are stories in themselves.
We will remember one uncle who waved repeatedly at the gate, and another uncle who said “Eat your pudding.”
What are some of your favorite family stories?
Several posts on this blog are essentially stories.
The V List is a story within a story, because it tells you about a story that inspired me to become a vegetarian for the next three years in my life.
Our ambitions and desires, our victories and failures all contain stories.
We should never regret any part of our stories. As Carl Jung says: “A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.”
We have only to think back on our lives to uncover our stories.
How I Lost a Thousand Dollars on Donuts tells you the story of one of my investing mishaps and what it cost me.
Why I Can Never get a Job at Google tells you why I am the only one in my family with an incomplete college education.
Conversations contain stories.
The more people we meet, the more new stories we will hear.
In The Element of Everyday Miracles and Its Hope for Reveling In the Mysteries of Life, I tell you a story I heard from Mary whom I met just 3 months ago.
Everyone who starts something new will have stories to tell.
The Element of Believing in Someone and Its Hope for Helping Them Move Mountains tells you about some of my new adventures and the people who helped me succeed.
When people do something you don't expect them to do, the story
will stick in your head.
The Element of Expectancy vs Expectations and Its Hope For Less Misunderstandings and Frustration has one such story that is stuck in my head.
Every friendship is also a story.
The United States of Friendship Part 1 - tells you the story of my friendship with Krysia.
The United States of Friendship Part 2 - tells you the story of my friendship with Gerry and some of the experiences I had working at Palm.
The United States of Friendship Part 3 - tells you about my friendship with Steve.
My Friendship series runs all the way through the United States of Friendship Part 12 and you will meet many wonderful people along the way.
Carl Jung said (yes, today is Quote Carl Jung Day): “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
A story is often born when 2 people have a shared experience.
In Kushboo, Jacinta Correa tells us about how her life became intertwined with one of the students at her school. A poignant story, indeed, and a must read.
We don't realize it but we are always making up stories whether we like it or not. We make up stories about people's behavior or why something happens to us - my post the The Element of Being Less Self-Centered and Its Hope for Seeing Things in the Correct Light is about this propensity to make up stories when we are puzzled about the things that happen to us.
We even make up stories when we buy something. I used to have a story for every stock purchase I made. I would say, “well, I am buying Sirius Satellite Radio (incidentally, one of the dogs in my portfolio) because they have a "subscription model – recurring revenue, you know." Blah, blah, blah. “Amazon is giving brick and mortar stores a run for their money” blah, blah, blah.
Stories have an important role in our lives.
Philip Pullman says, “After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
Our imaginations are hungry and we need stories.
We grow in our story telling needs; When we are little, everything has to be happily ever after; when we get older, we realize wonderful beginnings may not have perfect endings; and we are able to laugh and cry with Oliver Barrett in Love Story, or Dean in Blue Valentine, or Noah in Notebook.
So if we all have so many stories, the question then becomes are you courageous enough to tell yours.
I hope some day you will be.
Why not now?
As always, thanks for reading and have a great day and week….M….a Pearl Seeker like you. Thanks to Ajay, Ananda, Betty, Chris and Rosie for their comments on Facebook and to the rest of you for your pins on Pinterest and likes on Facebook. Much appreciated.
