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Just Above Bone: A Memoir

In Our Stories: The Blog, I explore the many reasons why our stories are more important than most of us know. The comments are interesting as well. This is a subject that interests a lot of people.

Are Stories Important?

In her book The Shelter of Each Other, Mary Pipher gives advice on rebuilding troubled families.

She gives an example of a family reunion where the youngsters are given a video to watch in the back room so the adults can talk undisturbed. Dr. Pipher believes this diversion actually deprives kids. Children need to mix with the older generation so they can hear the stories of aunts, uncles, grandparents, and parents.

In the book, What's Your Story: Storytelling to Move Markets, Audiences, People, and Brands, Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker advise business leaders to mind their story.
"Storytelling has the power to change the destiny of a company, an industry, a nation, and--ultimately--the world. It's a force as powerful and universal as gravity and, sadly, often almost as invisible to the people it impacts."

"To be a person is to have a story to tell."
--Isak Dinesen

	You never know what you will uncover. Pirates! My ancestorial home, a Danish island, was a Viking stronghold.

Just Above Bone is a memoir that explores the power of family stories.
Want to explore your own family stories?

First things first. Before you can gather family stories, you need to assess what you already know.

MAKE A PLAN
Write a brief family history.
While you're writing this history, note what you know and don't know and make notes of gaps you'd like to fill in.
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In his book, The Healing Power of Stories, Daniel Taylor suggests that the right story can make all the difference.

"If your present life story is broken or diseased, it can be made well. Or, if necessary, it can be replaced by a story that has a plot worth living. Our greatest desire, greater even than the desire for happiness, is that our lives mean something. This desire for meaning is the originating impulse of story. We tell stories because we hope to find or create significant connections between things. Stories link past, present, and future in a way that tells us where we have been (even before we were born), where we are, and where we are going."