Strange Stories

If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. And I here make a rule--a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting--only the deeply personal and familiar.

- John Steinbeck

It seems that we are drawn to the strange and exotic. But they are only interesting to us in that they act to amplify our own story.

It is far too easy to miss the important truths that are communicated in our everyday lives simply because we see them everyday. "If there was anything to learn within my daily story," we reason, "I would have learned it long ago." The world around us ceases to be the amazing and varied creation of God because it is "the same old same old."

But in the strange and exotic. In the stories of the lives of those who live differently than us. We can see the truth of God more clearly than in our own. The deceptive smokescreen of familiarity is pulled away and we see that God is working everyday-- in their lives, yes, but also in our own.

Mankind is made in the image of God. When we know more stories of more men we see God more clearly.