I have been thinking a lot lately about the idea of storytelling. I love to hear a good story. I love to read a good story and I sure do like to tell good stories. If a story is interesting and told well, it is powerful. It’s like music – it can transport us in our imaginations to absolutely anywhere.
I’ve also been thinking about Tribal Storytelling . . . you know passing families stories down through generations. We don’t do that much anymore, at least not in my immediate family. When we got together with my extended family over Christmas it happened a lot more. It was an amazing time. The kids even re-enacted some pictures we’d taken of them a dozen or so years before. Storytelling was inspiring. It brought peace. It gave hope. It brought everyone closer together. A loving family heritage is so very valuable. We need to be reminded. The newer members of the family need to hear about the history we share.
I do tell the kids stories about things they’ve accomplished or awards that they’ve won or the time that they nearly died, or special memories that I have of them. Like when, at 3 years of age, Beau stood and quoted Proverbs 3: 5&6 at high school church camp. Or when Sarah auditioned for a solo in the Christmas musical at church when she was 4 and got it! And when Jesse got this massive splinter in his stomach on the playground at pre-school and he wouldn’t let us touch it when he was 3. They know about their past and our families past, but I need to do a better job of telling them about the past with my parents, and grandparents and so on.
While we were in California, I had a great chat with Jesse one night. He was trying to figure out who all the relatives were and how they interact with the cousins in Ohio and Louisiana, etc. And he asked about my mom and her husband (Scott and Donna Farnham) and about my dad and his wife (John and Sharon Carter) and about my husband’s parents (Billy and Brenda LeJeune). We talked about the Hancock side of the family and about the Carter side. And about all the cousins and who went with who! He got quiet for a moment. I could see the wheels spinning. Then he said, so if your mom is a Farnham and your dad is a Carter and granny and paw paw have the same last name as us, then who the heck are the Hancocks? I totally laughed. I just hadn’t done a good enough job of tribal storytelling about his great-grandparents and the extended family!!
I have just finished reading a book (not one that I’d recommend) about childhood stories. This mom collected and wrote these memories so that her daughters would remember them when they were older. What was interesting to me was that the past seemed to be pretty terrible; I’m not sure why she would want to keep those memories vivid for them. She reported in her narrative, that we have, on average, 12 childhood memories that we re-live and that stay alive in our memory as we get older. TWELVE – that’s it!! And she said those are usually not things we remember first hand, but someone has told us about them or we’ve seen a picture and have it etched in our brains visually.
Twelve is just not enough! So, this past year, I started a “Stories” book that I’m writing down everything I can remember about the past, especially stories that I want my kids to pass along to their kids and so on. So far, I bet, I’ve collected over 75 different memories of the kids and our family over the past 28 years. I’m hoping to work on it more now that the crazy holiday schedule and travel is over. I challenge you to do the same thing! But do one better than me: write it down as it happens. You think you’ll remember that sweet prayer or that question about a caterpillar, but as the years go by, you don’t! Take it from a mid-40s mom, the memory chip is one of the first things to go.
Sarah and I have been making a movie, SWAY, for more than 2 years. Sometimes that seems like such a very long time and at other times, it seems to have flown by. We have just tried to sustain momentum long enough to finish well. What I like so much about making a movie is that we get to tell a story. How fun is that!!! SWAY is almost complete; soon you’ll get to spend an hour and a half of your time to watch this silly love story that Sarah and I wrote and want to share with you. We’ve made it 100% family friendly (no foul language, no inappropriate topics, no love scenes – just a few kisses) and we really hope that you leave the theatre whistling a tune from one of the 15 familiar songs that are integral to the plot of this musical. It’s really a lot of fun to tell a story through cinema.
On January 1, 2011, we launched a full trailer. I hope you’ve seen it. It’s on my FB page if you haven’t and want to, or you can find it at www.swaythemovie.com or www.feelinggoodentertainment.com . Please keep praying for us – there’s still quite a few last minute details to work through in our efforts to tell a story.
And no matter what else you do - keep telling stories!
