Connections

We watched Sam Mendes’ film 1917 last night and it got me thinking, again. I began to reflect on the power of peoples’ personal stories. Mendes based his film on the stories his grandfather told him about events he witnessed or heard about whilst serving in the army during the 1st World War. They obviously had such an impact on his young grandson that years later these stories had remained with him and he was able to make a personal, remarkable and moving visual tribute to his grandfather.

I have recently been asked to research a family tree, particularly because the friend who made the request’s grandfather appeared to have such an interesting story and as my research went on, indeed he did. He was brought vividly to life the deeper I delved into his history. As the hours went by this man became a living, breathing person. More anecdotes and pictures appeared in my in-box as the memories of the tales told came back to my friend. How his grandfather made him feel and what he thought about his grandfather and their relationship.

Please click on the arrow to view

Stories, whether they be real or imagined, reveal much about the narrator and as Grayson Perry said in his recent Art Club series, they are a way of expressing our inner thoughts. As with art, sculpture, music and dance, once released, lay us open and vulnerable to comment and judgement, but on the other hand they also wield the power to provoke extreme emotional responses. Fundamentally I believe it is the act of sharing that contributes to our emotional strength and provides a common bond between us. The creator is saying this is part of me I am sharing with you.

BBC Radio 4 are currently airing’ The Best of Claire Balding’s Rambling Series’. She meets up with various people and whilst rambling the public footpaths of Britain, stories and anecdotes are shared, connections and relationships made. A simple enough concept but quite powerful, certainly worth a listen if this interests you.

In our current times, when the world is topsy-turvy and we are all reminded of our mortality and vulnerability, we are having to re-calibrate our ‘can and can’t control button’ and are all trying to find a way through the best we can. This experience will form part of our personal stories’ and later on, when this is all over, we may be lucky enough to be in a position to share our experiences through our medium of choice (even an award-winning film perhaps) and make a connection with people or another generation. Sharing the story through our own Minds Eye.

Christopher Hitchens (author, journalist) is attributed with saying:-

‘Everyone has a book in them and more often than not this is where it should remain’.

I understand this in two ways. It may not be that the story is not worth hearing but that the writing skills are not so good . This is probably a kind interpretation apparently Hitchens was known for his ascerbic putdowns.

I want to take the beginning of this adage ‘Everyone has a book in them’ as I believe we do and every story is worth hearing, if only for the sense of connection it gives us when we share it.

This is simply a personal musing on sharing and connections but for me at this time I think I am looking for the things that connect us as humans, not the things that can so easily tear us apart.

Garry has just suggested I might want to watch Neil Gaiman’s MasterClass on YouTube it’s only a few minutes long but I found it a very interesting and personal reflection on his experiences at the beginning of his writing career. He talks of the same sense of vulnerability writing a story gives him and his belief that honesty is the only way to write fiction. Again worth a listen.

Well that’s my musings for this week. I have added some photos for interest and enjoyment.

Bye for now

Caroline