One of my life goals is to tell good stories.  Telling a story isn’t rocket science but I think that good story telling is one of the greatest gifts that we can bestow upon our children, friends, and unwitting strangers.  

I devoured the stories that my Uncle Jim, my Aunt Arlene, my grandfather Walt Martineau, Cousin Scott, as well as my Mom and Dad told me.  This really isn’t different than any other family—stories are the fabric that connects us who come later to those that came before.  Again, not rocket science here, I’m stating the obvious.  Today I think part of the reason that I idolized my Uncle Jim was his ability to tell stories that were personal, incredibly funny, honest, and largely true.

I was told by my mother that our family motto is “why tell the truth if a lie is funnier” and I think there’s something to that—sadly this defense wasn’t acceptable when hiding “F’s” in math.  I say that my Uncle Jim’s stories are largely true because even though my family is wont to exaggerate, there is always truth in his stories.   As Ken Burns said in the video “all story is manipulation…truth is—we hope—a byproduct of the best of our stories, and yet there are many different kinds of truths”.  

There are a lot of real and very sad stories in the world, and a lot of funny ones too. Certainly both types are important but when dealing with serious and personally difficult times laughter is a way to move through life. I know that I only made it through TFA because I learned to laugh instead of cry at moments too sad and too close to home. I’ve been sharing a lot about my time with TFA recently and I hope that people have been able to take truths away that I wouldn’t have been able to share when I was teaching.  I’m manipulating my experience but my stories are more true and better for it.

Today I live in a city where people deeply believe in many disparate things and tell stories—variations of truths—to their children, friends, and neighbors. Holidays here look very different and have divergent narratives depending on what truth people intend to share.  While we may convey different truths by telling the same story or even tell different stories to share the same truth we all share one interwoven and unbreakable story together as humans.  I think that this point is often lost if we aren’t able to appreciate that there may indeed be more than one side to a story or even more than one truth.

Burns said “the thing that matters most to us; some people call it love, some people call it god, some people call it reason; is that other thing where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”.  Many people in Jerusalem or Al Quds (The Holy) believe that there is a g-d that connects the world.  I happen to believe love is what connects us but no matter what explains the unexplainable, it’s a pretty compelling story.

I really hope to share good stories that show there is something more, something that connects us and connects me with you.  In time I hope that a city like Jerusalem can bridge it’s divides and reconcile the truths with the stories and realize how human we all are. It’s not rocket science but it would make a great story wouldn’t it?