Why Family Stories? Unless we pause to ask, “Why that story,” or “Why that story told that way,” we may find ourselves trying to live the story we’ve always heard. In my family we tell great love stories. Listen long enough and you might spend your whole life waiting to be swept off your feet. Stories get better with time. Families exaggerate because they want the stories to be remembered. Pay attention. The whoppers contain clues as...

I had a great aunt whose idea of entertainment was to bring out the family photographs and carefully repeat the names, “This is cousin So-and-So.” A man’s wife was always “Mrs. So-and-So,” never a first name, who was called something else before she was married and something else after she re-married. Of course, Mrs. So-and-So was related to someone else I was supposed to know . . .. I was worse than bored. I grumped and slumped until...

I was teaching a class on novel-writing. One student was writing about three generations of women who all married men they didn’t love. The book was largely autobiographical. For that reason she was unwilling to make many changes. As I continued to listen to her, I realized that her family seemingly encouraged stories of my-misery-is-worse-than-your-misery. That meant marrying a man you didn’t love was a prerequisite and the novel was...

This story shall the good man teach his son . . . [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAvmLDkAgAM] But we in it shall be remember’d; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any...

According to the International Time Capsule Society at Atlanta‘s Oglethorpe University, 90% of time capsules are never recovered–best estimate, 10,000 lost worldwide. We forget. We can’t find them. We don’t care. They’re too expensive to dig up. Name your excuse . . .. The same can be said for family stories, family photos, other mementos. We keep trying. The Crypt of Civilization, also located at Oglethorpe...