I’m a storyteller. I come from a long line of storytellers. When my maternal grandfather passed, I was given what I consider our family storytelling totem, his cane. It’s just a plain wooden cane, but it felt like the torch had been passed. He was one of the best storytellers I have ever known and I am honored to carry the tradition.
I tell you that to tell you this. If you are looking for facts and figures, this is probably not the right place. Mostly what you are going to get are stories from my life, stories from my friends’ lives, and stories that I have learned from others. Hopefully, you will be able to take something from them, or at least enjoy them, get a good laugh at my expense.
Life is a story. The best thing about making mistakes, and I’ve made way more than my share, is that they eventually make good stories. The next time you make a colossal screw-up, just think to yourself, in a couple of years, that is really going to be entertaining to my friends. Successes are way less interesting than mistakes, when it comes to storytelling.
Keep this in mind as you go through life. It’s okay to screw up because then you have good stories. Have you ever listened to someone go on about how successful and awesome they are? Boring as heck, right? Pompous jackass, really. But, when they tell you about the time they smacked their face on the diving board and the whole pool had to be drained and cleaned at the cost of $8,000, that is some funny stuff right there, I don’t care who you are.
And I tell you that to tell you this, don’t be afraid of making mistakes. The worst that can happen is that you’ll have funny stories. The best that can happen is that you’ll succeed. Take chances. Do things that people say you can’t do. Be wild. Be crazy. Because, eventually, your life will only be the stories you can tell your grandchildren. You really want to just talk about all the horrible TV you watched?
You’ll find this is going to be a theme in my writing. Getting over the fear of completely screwing up is the most important thing you can do to make your life awesome. And telling good stories.
Hopefully my stories will entertain you, maybe they will inspire you, and just perhaps they might enlighten you.
