HIGH NOTES FROM THE FIRST DUDE – DECEMBER 2016
The “Story”
It is this time of year that I think about the stories of our lives. As I reflect upon those stories, I think of the many different ways they continue to affect my life. I think that “Story Telling” for me started early in life, as my mother used to say I told some real whoppers. But those stories (which probably did not pass the 4-Way Test.) are not the stories I initially wanted to discuss this month. I wanted to relate the importance of acknowledging and telling our own “Rotary Story.”
To understand the power of stories please, pause to remember the stories of your life. I don’t think you took enough time, pause again and this time really think about the stories that have affected your life, I will wait for you.
Good, you decided to continue with me. My earliest memories are of being awake late into the night before Christmas and looking out the window into the Wyoming winter night’s sky and seeing Santa’s sleigh streaking through the night. I don’t know if that actually happened, but I am sure it came from being told the story “Twas the night before Christmas”, which we have continued as a tradition in the High Family.
Over the years, as I grew, the “stories” grew with me. They served as entertainment, as when us old service guys get together and tell war stories, (mostly fiction), or as education when my mentors over the years have taught me about medicine and the business of health care (based upon real life), or inspiration as I tell my peers, staff and students how we used to practice pharmacy (based upon real experience, but really, really, really boring.)
But seriously, the stories we tell about Rotary provide many opportunities. It was one of these stories in 2009 that started my conversion from being a Member of a Rotary Club to being a Rotarian. Recently, I have had the opportunity to watch “The Gov” tell her Rotary story. I am bias, but I think it is a powerful story. She doesn’t always tell it the same way, modifying the story for the audience she is presenting for. This is one of the things we all have to do to make our stories relevant to our audience whomever they are.
Life is good!
Yours in Rotary,
Joe (First Dude)