Every family has a story teller. It’s the person who can captivate an audience as they lead them down a path of words, memories and emotions. We do have to admit, some people are much better at doing this than others. I, for one, have an absolutely horrible memory. The only stories I tell are ones that I really know well and that have been told time and time again. For me, it was always about the details and many times, I would get so wrapped up in trying to remember them that the magic of the story was lost. My father, on the other hand, is quite the opposite. He has the skill of intelligent and engaging conversation, making you pay attention, learn and laugh in the process.
As part of the Sony DigiDad Project, where Sony has lent us a variety of really great tech gear like BRAVIA TVs, VAIO laptops, Digital SLRs and Blu-Ray players, one of our “assignments” was to do a “Heritage Time Machine” using the Sony HD Camcorder they lent us (HDR-XR500) . The idea was to capture family history in HD video with no other real guidelines set. This was actually a great project since I had only recorded a few stories from my grandmother before she passed away several years ago; my wife did the same with her mother. So this concept of recording one’s family history or heritage is not a new concept, just the manner and tools available to do so have changed.
The Art of Storytelling
Long before the advent of tech, a time that my wife would gladly have lived but I probably would have withered and died like a flower without sun, storytelling was one main forms of entertainment. But it also served the purpose of continuing legacies and ensuring that family history was passed from generation to generation. The spoken (and written) word was the way that many family members learned about their generational history. Even as far back as the “cave dwellers” many thousands of years ago, history was depicted with pictures and some form of spoken communication. Children nowadays do their own type of cave drawing (hopefully not with crayons on the walls) but in the forms of pictures and artwork. They too, suck up stories that are told to them, and become enriched in the process (which helps their brain development as well as teaches them the importance of a good story).
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