Blog 89 – 8.7.15

James Clifford White a.k.a Jake was known by all who knew him as quite a story teller. All stories even those who say they are based on a true story have elements of fiction or what I call “poetic license.” And even stories that are said to be completely fiction or made up have elements of truth. The line between fiction and non-fiction is a fine one at best and often hard to see.

My daddy loved a good story and if you told him one and he liked it he made it his own. Usually you would hear it and recognize it as the story you had told him but in his version it all had happened to him. I called him on that once and he just grinned and said, “It sounds better in first person.” And I think dad was more concerned with entertaining, telling a good story, than in promoting himself. For all his faults I think my dad had a very healthy outlook on life and loved himself and was therefore able to genuinely accept and love others.

I think I inherited my dad’s love of stories and story telling. One of the secrets to telling a good story besides telling it often so you can really polish it is to watch the eyes of your listeners for clues that you really have their interest. Writers miss that and so we appreciate so much our readers comments. Even the not so positive or encouraging ones. These are wonderful opportunities to shape the story, to broaden its appeal, to make it a bigger, better story.

I am grateful that my daddy took the time to share his stories with everyone who came along my like my Emily did with her songs, stories set to music. The greatest gift each of us has to share is our own unique story our own particular melody. In my mind at least the story is His Story and all our stories and all our songs are part of the One Great Story, the One a Great Song. The story would be incomplete without your or my chapter and verse. In the words of a Carpenter song:

Sing, sing a song,
Sing out loud, sing out strong.
Don’t worry that it’s not good enough
For anyone else to hear
Just sing, sing a song.

Your friend, fellow traveler, teller of stories, and singer of songs,
David White, Jake’s boy