I ran across a quote in a book that really got to me. It sort of justified my life and personality. It vindicated my obsession with constantly relating a joke or an anecdote whenever I am at a dinner table or merely having a discussion with a friend.

This is the quote: (very philosophical!)

"In the end, stories are what's left of us, we are no more than the few tales that persist." Written by Salman Rushdie from his book The Moor's Last Sigh.

It hit me squarely in the gut. Many times my kids roll their eyes toward heaven when I start to tell a yarn that they have heard a dozen times before. My son, Gregg, snaps off the punch line and I am left to recite the middle of the now-defunct tale. However, when the synapse is completed, I really cannot help myself. I must tell the story.

When I read Mr. Rushdie's two-line brief aphorism, I realized it was almost impossible to have a 10- or 20-minute conversation without either party relating a tale or narrating an incident. Test it, see if it is true.

"Stories are what we humans are made of!"

That is my paraphrasing of the quote. Personally, I have written over 500 columns, each one a history of some event in my lifetime. For better or worse, I just can't write fiction. My pen only spurts out the actual events of my life.

Ernest Hemingway in The Snows of Kilimanjaro states that a writer must be on the move. He/she must experience so that he has fodder for his pen. On the other hand, we have Franz Kafka, who reaches inside himself to pull out his internal struggles and put them on paper.

The Bible, the Iliad and Odyssey, the works of Shakespeare, are all stories passed down to future generations. Even my humble book, Over 60 and Getting Younger is my meager attempt to explain my essence by telling stories. I am proud of myself for having written it.

Don't be ashamed and don't be cowed by naysayers. Tell your story, loud and clear. Your stories are "YOU."