Tell
Your Truth
“A story
is a way to say something that can't be said any other way, and it
takes every word of the story to say what the meaning is.”
Flannery
O'Connor
Believe it or not, I've only just been introduced to Flannery O'Connor, arguably the most famous
southern writer of all time. For someone who lived for a mere
thirty-nine years, she was incredibly skilled at “saying something
that can't be said any other way.” She managed, in short story
format, to cover more territory in one tale—from romance to
horror—than most writers do in a thousand pages. Reading one story,
A Good Man Is Hard to Find, made me want to read everything else she
wrote. Funny and horrifying, sad and malevolent, all wrapped into a
fifteen minute read.
O'Connor wrote stories
that happen every day. No science fiction, no made-up fantasy, just stories about people who could be members of your own
family. In fact, should you begin to write the story of your own
family, you might be surprised at all the literary elements found
there. Literature is replete with folks telling stories that seem too
fantastic to have actually happened, but are true nonetheless. I
mentioned Frankie Silver a few days ago—some of you may remember
the ballad of Frankie and Johnny, and Sharyn McCrumb wrote a book
titled, The Ballad of Frankie Silver. It's a true story that has been
told for more than a hundred years, that no doubt has been
embellished in legend and song.
Sometimes truths are best
told as stories—parables, if you will. Sometimes we don't have to
beat out the last factoid of truth. We can simply tell a metaphorical
story that contains all the elements and gets the message across just
as clearly but in a way that others can hear and understand.
Confrontation with absolute facts is sometimes too brutal, but a good
story is almost always received well, and causes us to ponder meaning
for ourselves.
I wonder what your story
is. What story about yourself would you like for others to know? What
family story is such a treasure, or such a shock, that it should be
told? I hope you write them down. Our stories are, after all, our
lives as we see them. They hold our truth because only we can tell
them through our eyes.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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