Telling Stories

Good stories are all around us.  We are swimming in them.  Good story tellers are not as common.

The craft of telling a story is a bit like sculpting a figure out of a block of marble.  Every block of marble has an infinite number of figures hidden within it.

The same block of stone holds the head of a beautiful woman, an elephant or a chess piece.  The story is released by the genius of the sculptor or story teller.

Like the sculptor, the story teller must pare away all the little bits that distract from the story hiding within.  Additionally, they must tell it in a way where the listener can reasonably anticipate what will happen next.

One of the great joys in life is to share a front porch with a master story teller.