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How many words does it take to tell a story?
How many words does it take to tell your story?
If you take a look at your local library or bookstore, you might come to the conclusion that several volumes are necessary to tell the story of a person's life.
Sometimes, it's not what you say but how you say it.
Back in the 1920s author Ernest Hemingway accepted a challenge to write a complete story in six words. At stake, $10, a significant amount of money at the time. Hemingway's response demonstrated simplicity is often more powerful than verbosity.
His story? "For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn."
One can only assume he won the bet.
If you think about it, such short stories aren't uncommon. Julius Caesar's life can be defined as: "He came. He saw. He conquered." Even one of our basic beliefs tells a complete story, although more than six words are needed. "Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again."
If you had to summarize your life in six words, how would you do it? Would your story be: "Married perfect person. Happily ever after." Or would you prefer: "World's wealthiest person. Known for charity."
It could be that your goals and dreams are more modest. There's nothing wrong with a story that says, "Worked nine to five. Everybody's friend," or, "Large family. Many hugs. Work waits."
There will never be a point in your life when you know your complete story. No matter your age, more of your tale will always lie ahead. No matter what you feel about the stories that currently make up your life, you must allow them to continue. The alternative is nothing to look forward to.
Once we accept that every story isn't going to end in "happily ever after," we become more willing to embrace everything put before us regardless of the potential outcome. Every action we take, every person we meet, becomes a new chapter. One can't end without another beginning.
With this philosophy, the only tragic stories are those we never know, or worse, those we choose to avoid. Even those with great sorrow, like a couple selling unworn baby shoes, teach something about who we are and who we want to become.
While we all hope never to experience the loss of a child, we can't wish that we would never face that opportunity. To never risk losing a child also means never having the opportunity to welcome a child as well. To many, that pain would be even greater.
The moments of our lives filled with the most meaning are the ones tied to our strongest emotions. Lord Alfred Tennyson said it best. Even when we're feeling the most sorrow, he claimed, "'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all."
Even if we haven't lived a specific story ourselves, we can appreciate the range of emotions found in the stories of others. To cut ourselves off from our own stories would be to cut ourselves off from theirs as well.
At any moment, we're living multiple plots, some boring and some interesting, some tragic and some joyous, some long and some short. As Hemingway proved, the shortest stories can still be powerful, but you won't know what they are until they're complete.
As you move forward in your life, I hope you find the six-word story that's right for you and I hope it's as powerful as mine is to me: "Family first. Career second. Priorities straight."
Erick Rommel is a freelance writer working from Toms River, N.J.
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June 29, 2008 Issue - To the Ends of the Earth Missions Insert
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