Stories Do Not Age

One thing about being retired is that I finally make time to visit people I should have been visiting all along but thought I was too busy to visit.  And when I visit with people I have not seen in a long time the telling of stories always breaks out.

Recently, a road trip took us through Oklahoma City.  While there we took the opportunity to visit with an aunt that lives in an assisted living facility.   We visited during the time during the day when the residents meet in the activity room for coffee and donuts.  It was a happy time visiting her and others that live there. They love to have company and pretty much talk the whole time - between bites of donuts. They tell stories of long ago and then start over again with the same stories.

I just finished reading a book called  The Rent Collector.  There is a passage in that book where the author is reporting conversation between a teacher and her pupil.  The teacher is trying to teach her student the reason literature is so important to us and the teacher says, "Almost everything around us in life gets old and wears out; stories, like our very souls don't age."  Literature is important because it is full of stories and stories do not age.

Just as stories are so important when we get together with someone we haven't seen in a while, they are important other times as well.  Since the recent visit with my aunt I have been thinking about how important stories are to being successful in retirement or any stage of life:   stories we have lived, stories we have heard, stories we have read, stories we have dreamed, stories we have written.  Because as we remember the stories we already know, we realize that any stage of life well lived allows us to create a whole new set of stories.  Stories that will not age, even though we do.

 The Rent Collector, page 178

Copyright 2012 by Camron Wright

Published by Shadow Mountain Publishing

Shadowmountain.com

Published in paperbound 2013