Stories have a way of sneaking into places facts can’t. Today’s Thought of the Day from Neil Gaiman is a reminder that what endures isn’t the spreadsheet of numbers or the news headline that fades by tomorrow, but the stories that carry meaning through the years.
Think about how quickly facts lose their weight. A hundred years ago, people were memorizing telephone numbers. Today, most of us don’t know our spouse’s number by heart because we never have to dial it. That fact became obsolete.
But the stories we tell? Those are sticky. They get passed along, reshaped, retold, and remembered. My kids don’t remember what I told them about cleaning up their toys last week, but they still ask for the silly bedtime story where their Lego blocks came alive and tried to sneak into the fridge at night. That story, ridiculous as it is, stuck.
Stories work because they’re shadow-truths, as Gaiman calls them. They don’t just pass along information, they pass along the feeling beneath the information. You can tell me that generosity matters (that’s a fact). Or you can tell me the story of the stranger who gave up their bus seat for someone struggling with groceries, and suddenly I feel the truth in my bones.
Even history itself is really just stories about facts. The details shift, the emphasis changes, but the narrative remains. That’s why you and I remember the tale of the Trojan Horse more easily than we remember the dates of half the wars we studied in school.
This Thought of the Day also challenges me personally. I write every day here, trying to capture something meaningful. Some days, it feels like I’m just piling up words. But then I remember, if even one of these reflections becomes a story someone carries with them, then I’ve done something that outlasts the dust and ashes.
Maybe that’s the deeper point: facts can be measured, but stories are felt. And when the facts fade, the feelings are what endure.
So today, I’m trying to ask myself: what stories am I passing on? To my kids. To my readers. To myself. Because at the end of it all, I won’t be remembered for the exact words I said. I’ll be remembered for the way my stories made someone feel.
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