Breathing Creates Stories

I have spent a lot of time since Story Chip began, in discussions with people who try to convince me that their stories are not interesting or that they do not know how to tell them. I am lucky in that I know that all our stories are interesting and compelling when we tell them. They frequently lose something when someone else tells them for us or polishes them up in some way.

When you create a web site devoted to telling stories and creating pages full of people sharing their experiences, you surely generate your own sensitivity to examples of the simplest nature that become emotional blockbusters. I have a short list of those occasions and some great photos that follow the jump.

The first reminder came when a long time friend of a friend promised to add some Texas “tall tales” to our story collection. The result puts the Story Chip collection in fine company as the home of some delightful slices of Texas life that have been stretched just a little. Wonderful stories.

The second reminder was in the form of a Peace Corps volunteer's letter home from Mozambique. Her experiences may get lost in the thousands of blog posts on Peace Corps Journals, and make a wonderful addition to our searchable, wiki format.

April Snowman
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Finally, I received an email on a bright, 85 degree day in Texas that contained this photo of a snow man made by friends who live south of Taos, New Mexico. I am always glad to be reminded that spring comes to Texas earlier than some other places because one reason I left those other places is that spring comes later than I prefer.

The real story here is about friends and how they share their stories. We visited New Mexico a little more than one month ago and were there for a brief snow shower. When the snow enthusiasm had built to a feverish planning of building snow men, I could not help but point out that with the small amount of snow on the ground, it might be better to build “snow ants”. Twenty years ago, the follow up story would have required a camera, film, a trip to the photo developer, envelopes, stamps and a trip to the post office that could easily involve a delay of two weeks between the telling of the story on the telephone and the arrival of the pictures.

Digital photography and email reduced that fourteen days to fourteen minutes. So, a month after our visit to New Mexico, another brief but productive snow shower has produced the following snow sculpting. Please do not call the exterminators, just bring on the sun shine that allows friends to be so immediately connected with technology.

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Please do not call the exterminators, just bring on the sun shine that allows friends to be so immediately connected with technology.


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