Learning from the stories that capture our attention!

What are the stories that capture your attention? The ones you keep coming back to? I’ve got many, but there's one that always comes to mind this time of year. It's a story I first heard as a sophomore in high school, some twenty-plus years ago.

The first time I heard the story of Edmund Fitzgerald was in geometry class, of all places. During a weekly “name that tune” break my teacher queued up Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting folk song, aptly titled “The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald”, no one in the class guessed it. And once the entire class admitted our ignorance, a documentary viewing was in short order.

For those unfamiliar: The Edmund Fitzgerald was the greatest iron ore freighter on theGreat Lakes in the 60s and 70s. Yet, on November 10, 1975, while sailing across Lake Superior, it sank suddenly and mysteriously. No warning. No distress call. It simply disappeared along with its 29 crew members. 

The following spring the wreck was discovered. The once mighty hull now split in two twisted pieces lying on the lake bed. No one can say exactly what happened but there's plenty of theories and speculation.

So, why did my geometry teacher share this with us? I can't say for certain. Yet, two decades later, while I don’t remember how to do a proof, I do remember that a church in Detroit rings a bell once for each lost crew member every November 10th.

Maybe that was the point. 

Maybe in the midst of all the “you’ll-need-this-for-college” of high school he wanted to give us something we’d need for life. A moment to be captivated by a story, to wonder, to be still, to consider life in all its magnificence and simultaneous frailty. 

Whatever his reason, it’s stuck with me all the same. I think this is exactly what a great story ought to do. It grabs your attention and affixes itself to your consciousness in a way you can’t shake. 

Though there may be no direct connection between you and the story itself you can’t help but feel a part of it. 

We all have these stories, but what do we do with them? 

Here are a few things to consider:

- Are there any themes that stand out to you? What resonates with you?

-What questions are stirred in you as you consider these stories? 

- Do these stories provoke in you any sort of call to action? What would responding to that call look like for you?

After sitting with these questions. Take some time to map out what you discover on your own story. What do you notice? How does it shape how you move forward from here?

Having done this work myself, It’s not surprising to me that a story stuck with me more than the math. I nearly failed out of engineering in college, wound up with a history degree and now I have a storytelling business. 

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At Forerunner we have designed services and packages to help you discover and understand the unique importance and value of your story so you can then develop a strategy to share your story and do the work of moving toward your goals.

Want to see how it works? Reach out for a free demo: forerunnerstoryco.com/contact