Stories

I love these sentences from Max Ehrmann’s Desiderata:

“As far as possible, be on good terms with all persons.  Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.”

What jumps out at me when I read this is the “they too have their story.”  [I still think the “dull and ignorant” comment requires the modifier “those you perceive as”.]  The power of the story is always there at the core.  Each of us has a story, a story that is ours and ours alone.  The telling of the story is a gift.  It occurs to me, however that the greater gift is listening, really listening, to the story of another.