Talk Story

I've just learned a new Pidgin noun and verb--talk story. We are taking a group of students to the Good Samaritan assisted living and nursing home, and the chaplain told me the students can participate in their daily Bible study, eat lunch and talk story. To talk story is to open up to one another, sharing life stories. Of course talk story! Why did that term seem so foreign?! Isn't talk story just another name for oral tradition--a method all of our ancestors used to pass down our own stories. We inherited a lot from thousands of years of talk stories. Now what was once spoken has been recorded in print, so I don't think we talk story as much. We email, text, blog, read books and articles online--forms of talk story, but talk story is verbal communication. It is as much about what it is as where and with whom talk story is taking place. Talk story is community shaping. But how often do multiple generations sit around to talk story? Listen?

I loved bed time stories when I was younger; I still love to go home, even at 24, and have my mom make up some silly story that eventually lulls me to sleep. My mom used to tell me Bible stories this way. She wouldn't read from the Bible, rather she would tell them like a story, from memory, playing all the characters with different voices. As I dozed off those stories seeped into my dreams, weaving themselves into my memory. I also remember family gatherings when my dad's whole side of the family would get together for various celebrations. I always wanted to hear about when my grandmother was young and what my dad was like as a little boy. I wanted to know my family history; I loved to listen to my mom, dad, aunts, uncles, grandparents reminisce, talk story.

I don't think talk story is too far off from Jesus' method of teaching in parables, using stories to teach the family of believers, passing down truths in the form of stories. And weren't Paul's letters meant to be read aloud in churches--maybe a form of talk story? I think it was Bernard of Clairvaux who said that the best way to preach, teach, and spread the Good News is from the Book of Experience--talk stories---connecting with people by opening up ourselves, sharing bits of our lives, and passing down stories that might be used to instruct or entertain. I think that is why the Cistercians were second career monks; they did not accept children in their monasteries because Cistercians knew the the value of an experienced life and all the teachable lessons that accumulate over a lifetime. I am sure we are in for good talk stories at Good Samaritan--the average age of guests is 85. Those are pretty full books of experience!