When Your Mom Starts a Story, Shut Up and Listen

Stories are inside everything. For real. Everything.

Our oldest son is studying the human body at school, so my wife — in the medical field professionally — signed up to visit his class and talk about the human skeleton and how it all works.

Knowing how tricky it can be to talk to a room full of second graders, she knew she needed some kind of attention-getting prop. She asked me for the life-sized model skeleton that my late father — an orthopedic surgeon — had in his office. Oh man, that’s perfect. I tracked it down in my parents’ basement and it’s ready to go.

My dad named it. Yep, he named the skeleton. Meet Red (see photo), named after Red Skelton who was a comedian in the 1940s and 50s. My dad cracked himself up.

As I brought Red upstairs and started to pack him in my car to bring home, I started to wonder what would happen if I got pulled over…

Then, my mom started to tell me a story

She asked if I knew the story of how Red came into my dad’s ownership. I didn’t, so she told me.

Years ago, they actually made these model skeletons out of real bones. Please feel free to read that again. Think it’s a typo? Nope. You guys…they used to use REAL BONES.

Ew.

My dad didn’t want one with real bones. Not because it’s totally creepy to have a dead guy as room decor, but because it was super expensive. I would have gone with both reasons, but ok, just as long as it’s out of the question. My sister makes the joke that it cost an “arm and a leg” because goddammit that joke is f***ing funny. Right? Right.

So, my dad asked a friend of his in India to buy a skeleton model there — cheaper and not made of real bones — and then bring it with him on his next trip back to the US. The friend agrees because my dad’s friends were and are the best. Problem solved.

You thought trying to get a water bottle through security is bad?

Well, it turns out that airport security, even back then, weren’t too keen on seeing skeletons inside of people’s suitcases.

Let’s take this moment to pause for a second and imagine the face of whoever put my dad’s friend’s bag through the x-ray machine and saw a goddamn folded up skeleton in there.

He explained to airport security what was going on and why there was a skeleton in his suitcase. Mmmmmmm yeaaaahhhhh, they weren’t buying it. They tried to call my dad but he was in surgery so my friend’s dad sat and waited for hours until they could finally get a hold of my dad. My dad was finally able to explain who he was, who his friend was, and what this was all about.

Hours later, my dad’s friend was allowed to leave what was most likely the most uncomfortable security holding room in the airport.

You can’t make this shit up.

Where has this story been?

My dad had Red since before I was born so I’ve known this skeleton my whole life. I have no idea why this story was just shared with me this week. You’d think a story like that would have come up by now, but nope.

He’s been in my parents’ basement for years so I can only assume the story popped into my mom’s head upon seeing him again.

Seriously, you guys, when a mom starts telling a story, shut up and listen. Everything has a story and they all deserve to be told.

Storytelling is an art, but all stories are incredible. Listen to them. Share them. Tell them.

A story can make the regular seem amazing, and the amazing seem regular.

We’re living more and more in a world where people don’t think they have time to listen to stories — where we all need others to get to the point before we expire our 6 seconds of attention, and if it’s not tweetable then TL;DR.

But we need storytellers — and their stories — now more than ever. So, yes…listen to stories told to you, but also…tell your own. Whether it’s about how and why you started your company, about your friend, your parents, or your dog. Just tell it.

It’s the only way to turn an experience or memory into a story, and whether people listen or not, the creation is usually enough.

#bewhatyoumake