Our Stories

Who are the storytellers? Who are the bards?

When I was younger I was sure that my ancestors--at least on my father's side--were the theatrical traveling troubadors who journeyed from town to town telling great stories from memory in iambic pentameter with heart-stopping dramatic flair. Not actors exactly. Just the keepers of the tales.

I love writers. They are my favorite people. I love how they think and how they use words. There are many people I love--but writers speak to my soul.

But now, as time goes by, I think writers are the truth-tellers. Whether fiction or non (because many of the greatest truths are told in fiction...) writers are the ones who feel the need, the mission, the desire, the compulsion, to tell their story. And to get the story right. Sometimes they tell their story for their own ego or sheer love of language. But I am coming to believe that the calling to write comes from something deep, deep inside. And often it is to tell a story that has not been told, to tell the story no one else has heard, to tell a story for themselves, yes, but also for all the others like them who want, need and deserve to understand and be understood.

I think the need to tell a story can keep someone alive (we talked about this today with two of my favorite friends). Through war, genocide, illness. I think you can literally write for your life. Your sanity. Your sense of self.

But above all I think writers spring from a place where the truth was not told. The story was not known. It was secret. Or it was suppressed. Or it was denied. Writing is an act of defiance, of inves
tigation, of self-realization.

The person who is biggest, strongest, oldest, richest, gets to tell the story their way. But eventually, someone else gets their turn, to tell the story their own way.

It is scary, but so empowering. And--when it comes from a place of absolute truth--beautiful.

Jonathan, this is for you, my first truth-teller. And yes, M, you know this is for you. And, of course, it is for me. It is through writing--that of the many great authors and writers and poets and myth makers and playwrights-- that I can really bear the truth, better than anywhere else.