From The Daily Dialogue
From The Daily Dialogue
Broadcast of 12/6/98
Subject: [DailyDialogue #334] Telling Our Stories
"We all have Delany sisters stories in our families. History is nothing more than the stories of our lives written down. So learn them. Share them. It will open up a world of amazement and realizing the similarities will hopefully bring us all closer together."
-- Michelle Blackmon, Director, "Having Our Say"
Eddy and I watched two actresses portray Sadie and Bessie Delany, sister centenarians from Mt. Vernon, New York. They told story after story of their family history, interweaving events recorded in our history books. I liked hearing how proud they were of their parents, their heritage and their own personal accomplishments as black women in 20th Century America.
Afterward, Eddy quietly began organizing her family photographs taken over the past fifty years. She brought several photos over, one by one, to show me memories of her former husband, their home, her dog, and so forth. She also seemed proud of these times in her life.
In my family or origin, I was taught that humility was a most important virtue. This seemed to mean that our family was nothing special and our stories weren't worth remembering or repeating. A pity, since it seems healthy and useful to be proud of one's family history and share stories of that history.
Experiment: Share a story from your family history with your partner.
Affirmation: We strengthen or sense of self as we tell our family stories.
The Daily Dialogue is published each day of 1998 by e-mail. Copyright 1998, Eddy Brame and Marty Crouch, All rights reserved.
