Celebrating Just Another Day. Every day has the potential to be a significant day, it depends upon the stories we attach to it.
On Wednesday October 23, Shelli Jost Brady, Charles Collie and Gayle Turner will offer a workshop on Rewriting Leadership Horror Stories. Join us as we put a stake through the heart of leadership stories that have outlived their usefulness.
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Remember: You Matter. Your Stories Matter. Tell Them Well!
Gayle Turner
The Storytellers Channel
Just Another Day
Every day is pretty much like every other day. People are born, people die. And yet we give greater significance to some days than to others. It’s the stories attached to those days that give them their meaning. It’s our stories that give meaning to our lives.
October 7th is one of those days.
One hundred and seventy years ago, on October 7, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe died In Baltimore, MD. Few mourned his passing. He’d been a scandalous fellow. His writing broke social conventions and many considered him a profligate wastrel. A writer to whom Poe had given a bad review circulated stories defaming him. History has redeemed his reputation; today, he’s thought of as one of the world’s significant, groundbreaking authors. I admire him, because he appears to be the first American entrepreneurial artist. He made his living from his art. And in the process created genres, not the least of which is the detective story inspiring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.
Of greater significance in my life, October 7, 1949, my parents were married in the parsonage of Laurel Street Methodist Church. I’ve told the story of their courtship in my story, Saved by the Love of a Good Woman.
My dad passed away in 1992 and my mom lives in her memories these days. And yet that story gives great significance to October 7 in my life.
Another significant event happened the day my parents wed. The German Democratic Republic came into existence in East Germany. Dominated by Soviet Russia, it lasted until German reunification in 1990.
My parent’s marriage outlasted the GDR. Another example of love winning in the end. At least, that’s the story I tell myself. No one anticipated the Berlin Wall falling. But people strove to reach freedom. They struggled to be reunited with their loved ones. And we cheered as they refused to let a wall keep them from their dreams.
Joseph Campbell’s work revealing the Hero’s Journey as a dominant structure of humanity’s stories tells us that the journey is only successful when we bring the wisdom learned on our journeys home to our communities. I am a broken record when it comes to my belief that we live into the stories we tell ourselves. One of the stories I live is that in the end love will win.
As we approach All Hallowed Eve and All Saints Day I encourage you to take a look at your stories and ask yourself, “How are they working for you?”
It can be scary but think about the wisdom you’ve acquired in your journey and share it. Don’t let walls, physical or metaphorical keep you from making your community a better place.
Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
DOWNLOAD
Tales of Deadly Matrimony
by
Edgar Allan Poe
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I Want to Hear from You
Psychologists say we develop resilience when we know the stories of our birth, how our parents got together and the stories of our grandparents. They anchor us in time and space and aid in our belief that we, too, can weather the vicissitudes of time.
I’d love to hear your stories. On the 29th I’ll be publishing a scary story one of our readers sent me.
Til next time,
Gayle Turner
Executive Producer.