Monica McCarthy - Life Stylista

A key factor in determining the value of a diamond is the CARAT. How much does the diamond weigh?

Measurement.

Mass.

Substance.

These characteristics are straightforward enough for material objects, but what about stories?

Can the weight of a story be measured? How can we determine it’s worth?

Everything and everyone has a story. But lately I’ve become hesitant to use the word story as a foundation for what I’m trying say/create/build because it feels like a concept that lacks substance/mass/measurement.

Self-doubt rears its ugly head.

Are stories overrated? Ubiquitous? Over-simplified?

Why should we share them in the first place? We are, after all, in an age of information overload. Maybe it’s best we all shut up for a bit?

Suddenly my passion for stories of connection and truth and meaning and inspiration feels naïve.

Stories don’t pay the rent. They don’t pay my credit card bills. In fact, it’s the pursuit of these stories that got me into debt in the first place.

Better to start from scratch. Get a real job. In the end, what does my story really matter? Whom am I really helping?

A story isn’t reality. It’s an escape from reality, right?

But a funny thing happens on the way to finding and sharing our stories.

Once we read the first sentence of the first chapter, we’re hooked. We can’t put the book down. When we try to focus back on the stories society wants us to share (Buy this! Do that! Be this! No- not that!), our thoughts drift. We feel compelled to see what comes next in the page-turner instead. We are inexplicably drawn to the words and images and places and characters of the story worthy of telling.

The mendacity of day-to-day life (like running errands and paying our bills) are obligatory and important for keeping us going (like gas in a car) but they aren’t the story. Somewhere amidst the chaos and the overwhelm and the exhaustion of trying to keep up lays the sparkling diamond in the rough.

As much as we may try to bury it or hide it or ignore it or destroy it, the diamond, the story, remains. In fact, the name “Diamond” is derived from the old French “Diamant” itself derived from the Latin and Greek “Adamas” meaning unconquerable.

The story endures, even after we are gone.

And that is priceless, by any measurement.

“Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

{This is part two of a four-part series. Did you miss last week’s post about Clarity? You can read it here.}