I’ve been told, on occasion, that I am a relatively good story teller. There’s no doubt I have been blessed with the Gift of Gab; whenever the opportunity arises, I tend to have story to tell that in some way, shape, or fashion fits the situation. It has been suggested that I document these stories and perhaps even write a book.

I’m not sure that I am in the book writing class of story tellers; however, I reckon I can blog my stories as well as anyone and it honestly doesn’t feel quite as pretentious. In attempting to get some momentum behind this endeavor, I find myself struggling a bit to fire the engines up.

I have stories, but the blog doesn’t provide any context for sharing them, and I’m most accustomed to having some reason (even if tenuous) to get me started. So I thought perhaps I would attempt a chronological order of events , but what if I miss a story and need to go back later and add it? Maybe it makes more sense to take a topical approach (Youth, Military, Faith, Adventure, Redneck Exploits, Parenting, etc.)?

Being a blog, and having access to the use of Tags, I believe I have settled on some combination of the two and we will see how that works. The great thing about the web is that I can always go back and retrofit the data as I see fit, might as well take advantage of that.

Lastly, there is the issue of believability. By all accounts, I’ve led a somewhat fantastic life, and had some rather out of the ordinary experiences. I’ve often cogitated on the matter and wonder how much of that is owed to others lack of travel or lack of skill in relating their stories, as opposed to anything particularly unique about my own experiences.

Whatever it is, the fact remains that most people who hear my stories walk away laughing, having enjoyed the tale, yet believing that it is all fiction and that I have a great imagination. The exceptions to this rule tend to be those who have previous military experience, or those who have a wide variety of traveling experience under their belt. These individuals tend to nod their heads and speak up to tell how that reminds them of an experience they once had. Which leads me to suppose that the belief in a story is based more on the listener’s (or reader ‘s in this case) hermeneutic than anything else.

So, for those of you who are predisposed to believe that I simply spin tall tales with only the most tenuous threads of reality, I ask that you suspend your disbelief and broaden your perspective. I promise that all of these stories are well grounded in reality experienced by myself and those whom, alongside myself, set out to lay both hands on life. I will freely admit that I am prone to taking some creative license with these tales; however, I dare say that I’ll not provide any “Big One That Got Away” tales; the fish will all be appropriately sized.

Which leads me to believe that the first story to be shared should indeed be a fishing tale, I will indeed tell you all about The Big One That Got Away, and particularly how happy Tommy and I were to see it gone! Stay tuned and we will see about getting that written up.