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{March 2017}

Have you noticed that today, thanks to mobile technology, I think, we don’t talk to strangers anymore? Yes, I know, we’re taught not to from a very young age, but I think that up until the prevalence of the smartphone, once we reached adulthood, we all broke that rule from time to time. Waiting for the next available bank teller, sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, and certainly standing in the endless line at the DMV, conversations with those near us helped pass the time and very possibly could lead to a good story.

For that matter, we don’t talk to our loved ones much anymore, either. Yes, we text, we tweet, we post, we email; but we don’t converse. We certainly don’t share a lot of stories anymore. That makes me sad, because I know the value of a good story—it’s what I do for a living. Not only that, I’m a firm believer that everyone has a story to tell. Our lives are stories. Every time a person is born, the world starts a new story, a story that is uniquely theirs.

It can be hard to relate to people today with the impersonal ways that we communicate. But if you listen to someone’s story—the joys, the adversities, the people they met along the way—it’s apparent just how interconnected all our paths really are. Stories link us—they help us to understand what has happened, what is happening now, what might happen, and what will happen.

We have a tendency to believe that it’s the world’s “big” stories that define our history … you know, those like that of a brash multibillionaire who against all odds won the presidential election. In doing so, we overlook the seemingly “smaller” stories that have had such a tremendous impact on our history. The past, after all, isn’t just in the list of famous names and dates we find in textbooks. It’s everywhere. It’s in our buildings, it’s in our landscapes, it’s in the memories and experiences of all the people around us. It’s in your mother’s story, your grandmothers’ stories, and in the story of the stranger standing next to you at the gas pump. Put all those stories together, and you have history … or in honor of Women’s History Month, herstory.

Every woman, every day, shapes history. Don’t believe me? The next time you’re in line at the grocery store, start up a conversation with that woman beside you with the interesting wrinkles and evident laugh lines. And then on your way home, call (don’t text, don’t instant message, but actually dial and talk to) your mom, and ask her about her first job or the first election she voted in or what her neighborhood was like growing up—it doesn’t really matter what you ask, just get her talking. It’s my guess that you’ll not only make their day, you’ll hear stories far more entertaining than a YouTube video or the latest viral posts. And the next time you look in the mirror and fret over the lines on your own forehead or the gray in your hair, be proud instead—they not only tell the story of your life, they are making herstory.

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