Friday, August 31, 2007

Tell me a story...

Someone recently told me that... "Everyone has a story, and everyone wants to hear them." I'm not sure if I completely support this statement, and here's why.

Firstly, does everyone have a story that's worth telling? It has been known for some people to live wholly uneventful and dull lives, and in this case, surely their story wouldn't be worth telling? And if so, what constitutes an interesting story? Is a tragedy necessary? Or a mental illness? Or perhaps just one hideously nasty event is required in order to make a story worth telling? Either way, the presence of dull lives in this world goes towards disproving the above statement and should be kept in mind. That is, if you have a dull life which is lacking a personal tragedy, illness or catastrophic event, then just shut it - nobody wants to hear your story.

Secondly, does everyone want to hear other people's stories? Is it possible to say no? If everyone suddenly got wind of the fact that a story is supposed to be told, wouldn't we all just be inundated with stories and eventually get completely sick of not only the sound of other people's voices but also of hearing the same old drama's of parental divorce and teenage angst? Additionally, these seemingly tragic and pertinent events would lose their effect, and would eventually be pushed to the bottom of the 'interesting' pyramid, leaving thousands of adults at a loss to understand their dormant childhood issues?

I think I can safely assume that not everybody has a story. But I'm a little confused as to whether or not everyone wants to hear the stories, interesting or not. Can anyone shed some light?