Let Me Tell You A Story...

As a writer, I enjoy engaging people with stories about my various adventures. They can be simple, mundane events, but there are plenty who have told me they know when I am at a party. They will arrive, circulate, then realize "someone is holding court in the other room." That court is held by me telling some anecdote or story from days past. It's what I like to do. It relaxes me. But, despite what people might think from watching me go about my business, it is not easy at all. It's very hard, it takes practice, and it's not always appropriate,

What creative types already know is any event can constitute a story - it's just a matter of getting the right perspective and reading the room well enough to know when the story fits the mood. I have had the unfortunate experience of being with friends when someone's name comes up and a person in the room proceeds to tell a story about that named person. The story is inappropriate to the point of awkward, total cringe content, and probably something that the named person didn't want to spread around. And yet, here we are and there it is. Other times, people will be together and someone will start telling a story. About thirty seconds in, everyone but the teller realizes this story has nothing do do with the general tone of the gathering, and that the teller basically wanted to tell this story for their own person reasons. It might be a great story, but if it doesn't fit the mood of the room, it is lost before it starts.

Now, as I mentioned in my last post, this week I donated a kidney. The surgery went fine and the kidney is now working for someone else. This event is naturally excellent fodder for a great story. However, as I recovered from the procedure (on massive painkillers), I considered what the best story actually was. There is the story about what brought me to make such a decision to be a donor. There is, of course, the retelling of the pre-op process and the highlights of my hospital stay (note: after kidney donation, the next 30 hours in the hospital invovles a lot of people examining your bladder and bladder-adjacent areas. I no longer have secrets at Loyola Medical Center). These are valid stories , but could there be more than just a travelogue of the donor adventure?

After a few more painkillers, I thought the real story might be from the kidney's perspective. After all, it was now called to duty at a new location - a rare thing for organs. Would it be excited? Nervous? Anxious to get out and see the world? What would it be like to meet a new body? This seems like fertile ground for story-telling, since anything is possible.

Now here's the closer: They're all great stories. They all should be written, or thought about, or put together during some kind of writing exercise. What makes them interesting? Well, they really become interesting if they are told at the right time to the right crowd. Maybe the whole "having my kidney pulled out through a navel incision" story isn't something people at the barbeque would like to hear, but that crowd would appreciate the quiet embarrassment as I disucss the Loyola medical staff lining up to examine my junk. In either case, there are plenty of stories to be told. Just make sure you match the story to the crowd and the mood. The story will do the rest.