Stories

Muriel Rukeyser, poet, activist, feminist, Jew, wife, mother once said "The universe is made of stories, not atoms." This rings true in every aspect of my life. Just as atoms bind all of matter together, it is stories that bind all of humanity into one great web of life. Everything is connected. That's easy. When we look at these connections we find that they're events, relationships... stories.

When I talk to people about my family or friends, it always comes down to me telling a story or two. About the times at Kaliey's cabin, about the great great grandmother getting drunk on Jewish new-year. About Aunt Kathy's pies and Mom's brain saying she's done. About how i knew you when... or you remember that time....

Everyone has these stories. Everyone has their events, their places... their people. We love these people because of the stories they give us. When we're not near them it's the memory, the story that makes them special to us. We hold it in our heart, and replay it in our minds, and retell the stories to others. These create the connections that hold us together.

Resently at my aunts funeral, I told her that I would never forget her stories. That I'd bake her pies and cookies. That I would write them down so I would never have to forget what a wonderful sister, mother, grandmother, aunt, friend, spirit she was and is. I will have a problem when descibing her for I don't know weither to use past or present tense. Either way, the story will be wrote, read, reread, told and retold. I will tell the stories to my friends. I will share them with my family. I will eat them in her pies. I will live them with my actions.

This blog may contain a story or two of Aunt Kathy. I may contain a story or two about you. Either way it will contain stories that will bring all who know me closer to what makes our relationship, our story, even closer.

Chuck