Good stories almost always have layers of meaning written into them, even the ones that happened before our very eyes before anyone ever retold much less wrote them down.
My grandfather and a good friend of his were avid vegetable gardeners. Their friendship and friendly competition got out of hand one spring over who could grow the most tomatoes. The wager was on, and between them they planted hundreds of tomato plants in their otherwise family sized gardens. By the time harvesting time arrived, they had tomatoes filling both of the beds of their pickup trucks weekly for at least a couple of months. Their wives were furious with them (there being some expectation that they might can all of the extras). They each spent the early evening hours, of all those weeks, driving around our community giving away tomatoes. Both having been children and teenagers of the Great Depression, they also experienced some level of shame at how their competitiveness resulted in the wasting of so much food that they could not even give away.
I remember the events I’ve just described. I also remember how many times over the years of family gatherings that this story was retold. With some distance, now, I can see the layers to this story.
It is a story of friendship. It is a story of creativity and productivity. It is a story of competition. It is a story of joy and energy. It is a story of lost vision (why are we growing food in the first place?). It is a story of shame. It is a story of atonement. It is a story of community. And, it is a story of how excess can help us find our boundaries again. If it is not obvious from the story, my grandfather and his friend never engaged this sort of competitive gardening again, and each went on to produce beautiful, productive gardens for their extended families and friends for many more years.
Sometimes, when we fail to see the layers of a story, or worse–when we edit out the parts that we are not proud of–we miss all the power that they hold for us. And for those who receive the story.
~Bob Patrick
