Signs

I saw an intimidating sign today. I was driving north on 35W and noticed a big orange construction truck blocking the entrance to an off ramp. Several garbage-can-looking objects were sitting in the bed of the truck, blocking it's rear window. I was almost past the truck when I took another glance back and saw a sign the cans were hiding. It read:

Stay Back. Stay Alive.

To read this on the back of a construction truck as an individual who spends a fair amount of his time putting words and moving pictures to relay experiences, I found it all at once amusing.

I saw visions of small soldiers guarding the rear view mirror with mini shovels, heard the "Mr. Big Voice" movie trailer guy warning in his stern way, saw 2 people fencing, John Travolta dancing to a new rendition of his song and a scene straight out of Camelot.

I think I would have written the sign: Please do not get too close to this moving vehicle since your very livelihood is at stake in this matter. Thank you for your cooperation. -Management. But I suppose it's true-in the world of words, less is more.

Good Blogging

I just read a blog about blogging. When you read books or articles by writers, for writers, you will come across plenty of similar encouragement: read and write. Read a lot so that you can get a feel for others' voices. Because, after all, much of writing is about finding and developing your own written 'voice.' The second general encouragement you get is to write, write and write. It's like anything-you have to practice to get better. Even Stephen King says so. I can't name most rules of the English language, meaning I can't tell you when you get wrapped up in a dangling participle or expound about modifiers. I think I can eye a sentence and, for the most part, manipulate it so that it sounds like it was freed of a dangling participle and that no modifiers are imposing. But that is some crazy God-given talent that I still don't really understand.

Like Mary can throw numbers around all day, do it well and be energized by it, I am more and more eager to read and write, read and write. I got the bug bad about 5 years ago and watched it fizzle a bit in the past 2 years because of my career change. But there is something so liberating about sitting down and allowing the words to jump through my fingers. Those few aha moments when I can articulate something exactly the way it is in my core are worth every keyboard strike. Sometimes they turn into one long run-on sentence (I lied, I know a few grammar rules)...and sometimes they just work.

So, back to this blog about blogging (after reading it I realized I broke most of the rules). Great little article and I've been encouraged more than a few times by the practicality of Writer's Digest. Check out the article here (20 Tips for Good Blogging). Enjoy and happy blogging!

Minimum Speed Limit

In the words of Tom Cochrane, Life is a Highway. (Beware, by clicking this link, the song will be in your head for days.) So, let's say, for the sake of argument, that life really is like a highway. It's a worthy comparison and one that I've spent some time thinking about this morning in relation to who I am.

I seem to have spoken/written a vocational description into being when I added 'storyteller' to my business card almost 2 years ago-ooh, call it providence. I get a cute, warm, fuzzy picture of a bunch of kids squirming around in a semi-circle in the library of Neill Elementary school when I first think of storytellers. But after letting this image go and embracing the term in its timelessness, I sense a great responsibility to try and fill the shoes of this role. I could, of course, scrap the stacks of business cards for a sharper descriptor, but wouldn't that be boring?

So, life is a highway and I often find myself in the slow lane, turtling along at 40 mph. There are lots of cars on the road and with every rotation of every tire, each car/person is experiencing another little patch of life it hadn't the moment before. And with cars speeding along at 65 mph, and every rotation bringing new encounters, smells, words, thoughts, it's hard to imagine how much life we experience in one short trip down the highway. It's time-consuming enough to digest our side of the story at 40 mph, but imagine the speedsters flitting from one destination to the next at 70+.

While turtling along at 40 (this doesn't mean I'm an underachiever or slacker as I've also come to appreciate), the rushing of traffic is to my mind's ear and eye an onslaught of small graces, conversations, major life events, menial tasks, elation-the gamut. It's the trip to Chicago this past week to celebrate the life of Mary's Grandmother and everything those 2 days brought with it: reuniting with extended family (and for me in-laws), laughter, tears, a passing of the torch, seeing again our vulnerable lives in the reflection of eternity, trying to bridge relational gaps, and of course the 15 hours in the car which is another story altogether). Each of these pieces can be transcribed and crafted into a worthy narrative that holds a nugget or ten within. Instead, I'm forced to pick and choose which I have time for and the others will have to settle with being tossed in the back seat alongside empty doughnut bags and Starbucks cups.

I'm reading Improving Your Storytelling by Doug Lipman (and had you told me I'd be doing so 10 years ago I would have laughed and taken you off of my Christmas card list). It's a great tool to help develop your aural storytelling skills. Yes, you are a storyteller, too. We do it all the time when we share stories around the dinner table, tell a spouse about our day, recount embarrassing moments at a party. It's just that with life whizzing by, we have to develop an eye and ear for those stories that we need to communicate-those with teaching moments, truth and common ground for the human experience. It's why we're drawn to novels and movies, because we find our stories in those of others.

The speed limit in our society seems to increase all the time and it shows no signs of slowing down. This is not to say we just stop the car. But maybe it means picking a few of our stories, honing them and putting them in our back pockets for use in the right situation. Master them, tell them in different ways to different 'audiences' and enjoy being a conduit for God's creativity and voice. Telling stories is a gift-to the teller and the receiver.

So, go on! Tell your stories, pass the tradition, open lines of communication, break down walls.

You don't need a business card.