What's your story?

"Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts." - Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), "Memento"


Weight: 162

Last month I was working my Sunday morning shift. It was slow as usual, and the only other person in the office was a co-worker who came in on his day off to catch up on some of his work. He's a single guy, about my age, maybe a year younger. While we'd worked in the same office for a couple years, we hadn't really worked 'together'. Outside of the occasional sports barb or work related thing, we had not spoken much.

After he got settled in - grabbed his coffee, fired up his computer, went through his Emails - he looks over at me and says "It's going to be a long day Fryer... tell me a story".

That's a slightly daunting task, no? I mean, I was pretty sure we wasn't looking for me to make up some fantasy story about unicorns and rainbows. And even though it was slow at work, there was still work to do and focus on... so if I was going to step up to this task, it had to be something I 'knew'. Something I didn't really have to think about, as much as I just had to recite. Basically, I had to approach this like a whore on dollar night.

Some people would be uncomfortable or offended if they were suddenly asked to 'tell a story'. But really, isn't this a FANTASTIC was to eliminate or avoid a potential 'uncomfortable silence'? If you're out on a date (first or second date), and the conversation isn't going well, or it's too much like an interview with questions and answers, why not just say "So, tell me a story'? What is the worst that could happen? They might say 'you first'... that's it. And you can PICK the story! Instead of asking and answering questions you aren't interested in, you can talk about something you WANT to talk about! Trust me, you are more attractive when you actually care about the words coming out of your mouth.

However, the only way this actually works, is if you LISTEN and are interested and involved in the story. But I digress...

I told my co-worker "OK, let me think of which one to tell you", which sounds like I'm stalling for time, and in a way I was. But really, I have a solid handful of stories that I could have told (which I will blog about someday when I have writer's block). Off the top of my head, there's the infamous 'Bat in the basement story, there's the 'I danced with Madonna' story, there's any number of stories from college... but I went with the "First time I took a girl to a concert" story.

I'm not going to re-tell it here, not now anyway. That's not the point. The point is, I told my story, my co-worker listened. This lead to many exchanged back and forth... about concerts and girlfriends and music. It turned a boring Sunday into something way more enjoyable. We didn't 'compete' and try to 'one up' each other, we just took turns talking and listening.

So... if someone says for you to 'tell a story', do you have one? Do you have a story you can tell regardless of the genders or ages in your 'audience'? When was the last time you told your story? It's good to practice it, to ensure you can tell it without holes or gaps or leaving anything out. Practice keeps the 'facts' straight, and the interpretation clear.

Besides, isn't 'telling a good story' one of those things that everyone should be able to do? Kind of like treading water without panicking or driving a car with manual transmission or telling two good jokes (one clean, one dirty)?

Anyway, not a whole lot else new lately. I've run a little, and the Achilles hurts, but not 'bad'. I think I'll be okay if I don't get too crazy, and just put in the miles I'm supposed to with the restraint over pacing that I'm supposed to have.

I'm slowly getting better at this swimming thing. I'm following a 6 week program, but I'm stretching it out to 10-12 weeks. I'm not in a hurry, no triathlons for another 6 months.