Men and Their Stories

(copied from my 360.yahoo.com blog dated 10/19/07)

When I was in my twenties I realized something. I love to hear men tell stories. The photograph above is my father, one of the best story tellers I know. He tells some whoppers! And I think they are mostly true. But I love the embellishments, the pregnant pauses, the expressions; and I love that when I hear a man tell a story, I know the story is important to him. It is something from his past that he remembers and wants to share. You won't catch a man "sharing" like women throughout time have always wanted them to. But if you listen closely, and watch, you can learn a lot about a man's heart from his stories.

I am blessed to have many story tellers in my life. And I will sit at their feet (just a word picture, I don't literally sit at people's feet) and listen with rapt attention, even if I have heard the story a dozen times. I especially like to hear the stories of older men because they take me to a place that I never knew. I will never forget the night my Grandad Partridge stayed up late with me on one of his visits. We watched the movie All's Quiet On the Western Front, just the two of us. He opened up to me about some of his experiences in World War II. These were such intense experiences. I had never heard him talk about them to anyone before. I felt priviledged that he let me have a glimpse of a hidden part of him. I was just a child, but I knew it was important.

With all this in mind, I highly recommend you watch Tim Burton's movie Big Fish. It's all about story telling and a man's heart (actually two men - father and son), told much like a fairytale.

So, men...tell me your stories.