Everybody Has a Story

For several years there was a news segment on CBS by Steve Hartman called, “Everybody Has a Story.” He won several awards for this–and I was a big fan. I think there is some variation of it now on the CBS evening news. I am normally either cooking or eating or cleaning up from dinner when the news is on, so I don’t get to see it.

If you’ve never seen this segment, the reporter throws a dart at a detailed map. He travels to whichever town–or the nearest town–where the dart lands no matter how large or small. Once he arrives in town, he goes to a pay phone, opens the phone book, closes his eyes, and picks a number. Sometimes he has to try several numbers before he gets a taker–they think he’s selling something or pulling their leg or out to rob them. Every single time he finds SOME kind of interesting story to tell about the person–and the person NEVER thinks they have a story to tell.

One of my favorite ones was about an immigrant named Pedro. His neighbors called him Pete. He lived in a trailer–had raised several children–I think most or all of them had gone on to college even though their dad still spoke very broken English. He worked as a farm hand for some neighboring farmers.

The best part of the whole segment was when Steve Hartman and his camera man went to interview Pete’s neighbors. They were talking to a guy–a successful farmer who loved Pete and was telling them what a great neighbor he was and always willing to help out. Suddenly the guy’s barn caught on fire right there on camera. The cameraman had started filming the barn burning, when from across the pasture comes Pete, on foot, running to help his neighbor. He had no idea that the camera crew was there interviewing the guy about him–all he saw was smoke, and he came to help.

So Pete didn’t think he had a story at all–but to his neighbors and his family and then to me via Steve Hartman on CBS–he has a great story. Over at Boomama’s today, we are helping someone who has a story–in fact–each of us who donates either money or prayers, well, we have stories of our own. We are important to someone. We are living a life of possibility even when there are disappointments in our family or in our circumstances or in ourselves.

So, take heart. Everybody has a story. That’s what blogging is to me. A place to put my thoughts about my life, and myself, and my family. There is nothing remarkable here, yet people come to read what I say, because we all love a good story.

I have several blogs that I read on a daily basis–some that I only check every so often–of all those blogs I read, I only know TWO–count ‘em–TWO of those gals in “real time.” Sarah and Stephanie. The rest I’ve met on line–and that used to be a scary or shameful phrase–in fact, if I’m sharing a story about Rebecca in California or Sandy in Canada or Boomama over in Mississippi/Alabama/Georgia, or Antique Mommy in Dallas I don’t say, “my internet friend.” I just say my friend. That’s because by sharing our stories–from the hilarious to the mundane to the heart breaking to the hopeful, well, we are, most certainly, sharing much, much more than stories.