Driving around the US with a van full of books acknowledges the value of stories. All those volumes in the traveling bookstore, all those stories waiting to be shared. There are also stories from people I cross paths with on these trips and their stories. Telling me about their place, about their travels, about children, about grandparents. There are brief stories when I stand with someone by the bookstore. A woman tells me how she has a camper van so she can visit all sorts of festivals now that she is retired. A young man wants to buy a book for his new-born nephew because he really wants the nephew to experience the joy of books. A man at dinner wants to hear traveling bookstore stories. The mechanic offers me the story of how he came to be a witness for Jesus. The place I stayed the first day on the road this trip has stories going back thousands of years, and stories that were written down more recently.
This is our history. Whether it comes between two covers with an ISBN, or whether a friend tells you over morning coffee what her life was like fortysome years ago. Stories shape who we are. When a young woman visiting the bookstore tells me about the novel, The Nix (2016) by Nathan Hill that she feels I definitely must read, or someone asks if I have a copy of “The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (1992) by Julia Cameron – these stories shape their lives as well as mine. Our stories intersect. We talk about mothers, we talk about art, we talk about someone they know in Reno because they see that’s a stop on this bookstore tour.
When someone you haven’t seen in decades, reappears in your life, stories of those other times come rushing back. Forgotten stories come to the surface, like bubbles from the ocean depths. And those stories that come to us in dreams and we wonder where those stories are from? Or stories someone tells us that seem unbelievable? Was that a story from their dream? Or a story shaped by their pain? Or a story created to sow seeds of discontent? Regardless of a story’s genesis, it has power. I sometimes feel the bookstore glowing with the power of the stories it contains.
And those conflicting stories? No, it didn’t happen like that – it happened an entirely different way, don’t you remember? There are stories we doubt. Stories we will fight for. Stories we scream are lies.
What a way to start a Monday morning in Boise, Idaho. Thinking about stories – the amazing variety, the people who write them, the skilled storytellers, the wonder of all the stories that shape our lives. If you happen to see this and you are in the Boise area, stop by to share some of your stories with me. The traveling bookstore sets up today (4/22) at Westside Drive In at Parkcenter, and tomorrow at Mother Earth Tap Room.
Amazing Traveling Bookstore 
Nice Piece. May this season’s circuit provide good stories, and even better encounters. Your piece did remind me of a conversation with an old friend, one of a tiny number who have arrived at a degree of something I can call spiritual wisdom while keeping a straight face. I’ll have to paraphrase, because although the conversation was important to me, it did take place 30 years ago. He said, “We have to be very careful about how and when we tell our stories. Each time we tell a story, we fall in love with it a little bit more. That love allows us to imagine ourselves as an individual actor, with some sort of persistence, and hangs in place a thin curtain that helps us construct and bound that actor. The thin curtains get layered by repetition and habit to form what we feel to be part of a wall that defines “me,” and it’s inevitable that if there is a bounded and persistent “me,” there must also be a “not-me” to place it into relief. Although that’s useful for learning how to keep your hands away from the burner on the stove, it is not a good basis for ethical and compassionate action in the world. Be careful!”
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I do see this happening with people. As though they get caught in a story loop. We all have so many stories and yet, for some reason for some people they focus on a handful that are repeatedly told. And, as your friend pointed out, this can prove troublesome in a variety of ways.
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You have your stories in your blog. Very good reading. Drive safe.
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