August 30, 2010
As a prolific writer, I sometimes challenge myself by asking the question “does this story need to be told?” More often than not, I find that when I really think hard about it, it does not seem so. And thus, I often resolve myself to thinking that I just do not have enough good stories to tell and have not seen the world well enough to capture it in words– whether written or spoken. But, here is the thing: no one sees the world quite as I do, and by not telling stories because I am afraid that mine are not needed, I may be robbing the world of a story deeper than those I wish I had the capacity to tell……
“We turn to stories and pictures and music because they show us who and what and why we are, and what our relationship is to life and death, what is essential and what, despite the arbitrariness of falling beams, will not burn.” We tell stories because they help us remember who we are, and what in the world we are doing here. Sometimes a story is a tool that helps an author remember who he or she is….
Here, stories become needed, not because the author felt that they were needed but instead because there is a deep human longing for truth, meaning, and relationship that extends beyond material need. Good stories scratch the itch that lies just below the surface of things, churning up just enough dust to make others curious. Needed? …
Read the rest of Rebecca Horton‘s article at the Curator Magazine blog.
