A Story Worth Telling

The Great Blizzard of 2009 hit Oklahoma City last week on Christmas eve, but remnants remain even now more than a week later. Every gathering of people eventually leads to someone's blizzard story. That story will initiate others until everyone has told their remembrance of being stuck, stranded, cold, aggravated, inconvenienced, collided with, or otherwise interrupted by this historic snowstorm. The good thing is that all of these stories are told in cozy living rooms or kitchens and both the storyteller and the listener is comfortable and out of danger. The worse the conditions faced by the storyteller, the better the story. We enjoy telling stories of tough situations that we have endured. We can even make the stories funny, now, because we have survived them and our lives have returned to normal.

No one seems to want to hear about a normal day. Imagine telling a story of the ride home: "I took 122nd down to the Hefner Parkway. I had to stop at MacArthur, but I had a green light at Meridian. It was a really easy turn onto the parkway, and the traffic was flowing really smoothly so I was able to drive 65 all the way to the 63rd street exit." If you're listening to that story for very long, you're gonna try to find some reason to get away. The reason we like to tell and hear the blizzard stories is because they are unusual and have a level of suspense. That makes them interesting.

So why do we strive to live our lives as though the goal of life is to eliminate all risk? Take a chance. Make your life a story worth telling.