“Tell me a story! Tell me a story!” When I was a little girl visiting my Granny, I often asked her to tell me a story, particularly at night after I climbed into bed. Granny told the best stories, and they were usually silly ones she made up, as opposed to just telling me true accounts of times gone by. I wonder how many children today say, “Tell me a story.” Why would they? The action-packed videos and colorful games on their devices provide all the entertainment they need. Who would want to sit and listen to a story you can’t see? We are bored without stunning visual effects and movie-theater quality sound. Our shortened attention spans demand that we be fed creative content continuously.
I saw a commercial recently that said something like, “Let’s be telling stories instead of watching them.” That has really stuck with me. I don’t think we tell stories anymore. Before radio, before television, families entertained themselves by doing things such as making music, whether singing or playing an instrument, playing games, telling stories, or reading aloud from the Bible or newspaper. Remember Charles Ingalls playing his fiddle in the evenings as little Laura and Mary danced and played? Remember the guessing game played by Scrooge’s nephew’s party guests in A Christmas Carol? These sorts of activities relied on imagination and relationships. Today, much of our entertainment happens in isolation; one person alone playing a video game or scrolling through social media.
Creating and telling stories forges a unique bond among the listeners and the storyteller. Last year, I rode in the same car with my family on the way to our beach vacation. My 8 year old nephew was in the car and he wanted each person in the car to tell a story. My mother, who didn’t feel very creative that day, told us a funny and true story from her childhood, and it was a story we hadn’t heard before. Because she told us that story, we learned a little more about our grandparents that day. My dad made up a hilarious story, which he told in his best Italian accent, about a little meatball named Fabio. We all laughed until our sides hurt! We still talk about that story and laugh. If we’d been watching a movie in the car together, would we have experienced the same connections? Would we still be laughing about it today? I’ve seen a lot of movies with my family, and I don’t remember half of them as well as I remember that afternoon in the car and the story of Fabio the Meatballio.
Several winters ago, a serious ice storm left our neighborhood without power for nearly a week. In the evenings, the kids sat with me and my husband in the family room, gathered around the fire and bundled in their blankets, as I read a book aloud to them by candlelight. This particular story lent itself well to extra dramatization, and I began to use different voices and accents for the characters. The kids loved it! They still talk about that ice storm and that book. Losing electricity forced us to sit together in a room and experience the joy of using our imaginations. Why didn’t we do that before? Why did it take an ice storm for us to remove our distractions and our reliance on devices for entertainment?
You have stories to tell. You do. “I’m not creative,” you might say. Start by telling your story. Tell stories about your childhood, about your grandparents, about your first job, your first car, your favorite pet. Your story matters. It matters because you matter. You matter because you are made in the image of God and you are part of His big story. The experiences you have had in your life can serve as instruction and inspiration to those around you. They tell of God’s goodness, faithfulness, and mercy in your life. They also serve as common ground and a bridge between you and others. Our society focuses too much on our differences. The lack of real relationships and increasing isolation only deepens the perceived divide between us. If we tell our stories, we soon see that we have much more in common than we thought, and we begin to build empathy and compassion for others.
And then maybe you can try to make up some stories! If you’re unsure of how to get started, there are tons of writing prompts online that you could use. Try having your family go around and to the story. One person starts the story, makes up a little part, and then the next person picks up the story and makes up the next part, and so on. It takes the pressure off any one person and often results in a hilariously nonsensical story. The point is not to create an award-winning story; the point is to have fun!
