The film “Up!” begins with one of the most poignant sequences in film history. It tells the story of two young lovers (Carl and Ellie) who share the same hopes and dreams of high adventure, but whose lives — as pleasant and filled with love as they are — unfold in a very different fashion than they imagined. When Ellie dies, she leaves behind a scrapbook that created as a child. Most of the pages are blank and devoted to adventures she is going to have. After Ellie’s death, Carl agonizes that they never had the adventures they wanted to have.
It is only late in the film that Carl discovers that Ellie thought of their lives as an adventure and the pages, in fact, have been filled with photos of the things they did do together. Much to his surprise, at the very back of the book is Ellie’s invitation to Carl — “go have a new one.”
Stories loom larger in our lives than we imagine. We love to tell them, of course and, if they are told well, we love to hear them. They entertain, divert, teach, and inspire.
But stories are so much a part of our lives that it is easy to take them for granted. Their homely, commonplace character — the realization that anyone can tell a story and the assumption that if they are well told anyone can understand them — all this tempts us to believe that they really can’t be all that important. Factor in the rarified and specialized worlds in which we have all been reared and educated, where vocabulary, skills, and training initiate us into worlds that are cut off from other rarified and specialized worlds — and stories don’t seem to matter that much.
We assume, all too easily, that the wide, sure road to problem solving and wisdom lies in mastering concepts, memorizing data, and acquiring skills. But storytelling is actually far more powerful. As an instrument of personal, emotional, social, and spiritual transformation, stories (much more powerfully than concepts) possess the power to move, change, encourage, and heal us. If you can tell a story and then imagine how to tell the next chapter of that story you have discovered a powerful tool for spiritual transformation.
So, here are some suggestions for life-giving storytelling:
• What have been the major chapters in your life story?
• What has been at the center of the stories that make up those individual chapters — people, places, jobs, successes, failures, triumphs, and tragedies?
• Where are you in the story now?
• What is the next chapter about?
Tell your story to someone who loves you and will support you in writing the next chapter. Then go have your own adventure.
Sometimes I think that I am living an adventure. Nothing stays the same, and it’s up to me to adapt. Losing my dad when he was 55 was an eye opener for me. As I turned 55 myself, I found myself refusing to celebrate completing another year. I just didn’t want to face it. I even told a coworker that if I made it to 56 we would celebrate then. Somewhere during this past year I decided that I should celebrate each day. So, on goes my adventure. More chapters to come…if the Lord allows! With Him, I joyously face each day!