Archive for July, 2012
Impenetrable acronyms
As the guests arrive, Mother pulls us kids aside. “There’s plenty of ice-cream”, she says, “but FHB on the strawberries, okay?” Back in the present day, a phone-call from a close colleague: “Are you up for an HEC this week? I could do Friday.” Whether family, community or business, every group seems to develop its […]
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Stories anchor us in place, time, context
With just a few words, or pictures, we can imagine ourselves into some other place, separated from us somehow by time or distance. A memory of a quiet morning walk along a quiet quayside, perhaps. In that sense, our stories can anchor us in place, time, context. Yet although the real anchors there are the facts […]
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Stories of principle
This small portrait of one of my English ancestors now hangs on the wall halfway up the stairs at my mother’s house. The formal clothes and the overall style place him around the 1830s or 1840s – a time when the excesses of the Regency were fading, and when public principles once again began to […]
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Using a story-bank to manage your stories
You collect stories; you tell stories; you use stories, in many different ways, in your family, your community, your business. But how do you manage those stories? How do you record them, keep track of them, link them, assess their meaning, veracity and value? How do you ensure that the right story is used in […]
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