How many stories does your life have?
Several years ago, a colleague and I attended a conference in New York. Afterward were able to spend a couple of extra days in the city. We visited with some mutual friends there, and otherwise had the chance to blast around, taking in whatever sights we could.
Manhattan, of course, is known for its canyons of tall buildings. A density of skyscrapers, probably surpassed only by Hong Kong.
Of course, New York City is home to one of the most famous skyscrapers of them all, the Empire State Building. My visit to New York included, of course, an obligatory trip to see this fabled structure. At one time it was the world’s tallest building, but others have since surpassed it. Most of the world’s tallest buildings, by the way, are in Asia.
The Empire State Building remains unique and famous, however, not because it is the tallest building, but because of its history and its “stories.” This art deco monument has stood in the middle of Manhattan since its completion in 1931. Unbelievably, it took only a little more than a year to build, and that was right as the Great Depression was getting underway.
The Empire State Building has 102 stories.
Actually, I’m sure the building has accrued many more “stories” than that in its more than 90 years of standing watch over the city.
Ah, you see what I just did there.
We refer to the height of a building in reference to how many “stories” it has. We also call them “floors,” but I prefer “story” to that more “pedestrian” title.
In the case of the Empire State Building, the stories include absorbing the crash of a B-17 bomber on July 28, 1945, among other mishaps. And what other building has had a giant ape with a helpless blonde woman in tow, climb its heights, swatting at bi-planes encircling him all the way?
Oh wait, that didn’t actually happen.
But, it makes a good story, doesn’t it?
I imagine that the Empire State Building has lots of stories, both literal and figurative.
So why do we even use the word “Story” for the level of a building?
I get interested in questions like this, for some reason, and end up going down the rabbit hole to learn more.
There are several intriguing theories:
One explanation is rooted in the middle ages, when many or most buildings had just one level. An exception to that was churches, which were taller and more open. Often they were the tallest buildings in a town or village, and certainly that was true with the tower or steeple. And by the way, the difference between a village and a hamlet, at least in England, was that a village had a church and a hamlet did not.
The stained glass windows in a village church, or especially those in a cathedral, tell a story. Generally, a story from the Bible or from the history of the church. This was especially important in a time when many people were not literate. In this theory, the “story” was equated with the stained glass windows. Over time, the church buildings came to have more than one level, or levels of windows one above the other. The windows thus depicted different levels of the “story.”
There is also the notion that in the middle ages, in some places in Europe, people would decorate the sides of buildings with paintings or with slogans and words of wisdom. These words and pictures may have told a story, each one associated with a different level of the building.
Another theory is that medieval castles…
which were also some of the few buildings that had multiple levels, stored goods of various sorts on each level in the event of a siege. Surviving a siege, after all, is pretty much what castles were designed to do. The storage function of each level of the castle led them to be called “storeys.” Eventually, the distance between levels was standardized. “Storey” became used for a unit of measure between the levels of a building.
Some language etymologists propose that the sets of stairs between levels of a building were once called “stairies.” This eventually morphed into “stories.”
Another theory is that in using bricks or stones to construct a building, masons used a “story board” to mark the distance between levels where floorboards were to be inserted. Even today, authors, journalists, and others use the concept of the “storyboard.” Storyboards are a graphic or visual way of presenting a story, article, or narrative.
And yet another theory is that the word “story” is related to the Latin word historia, referring to narrations of the past. That makes sense, although it doesn’t really explain how the word “story” came to describe the levels of a building.
In any case, you can see that there are any number of suggestions as to how “story” became the common word for a level of a building. Some of the ideas do make more sense than others.
However the terminology came to be, the most interesting thing is that the higher a building goes, the more “stories” it has. We can think of this literally and metaphorically.
I think of it as a metaphor of our lives.
The older we are, like the Empire State Building, the more we gain “stories” that are part of what makes us interesting and influential. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (Sleepless in Seattle) didn’t decide to meet up on some random skyscraper in a generic city. No, it had to be the Empire State Building, a building that already had a lot of “stories.” They simply added some more. Oh yeah, that was also just a movie and didn’t really happen, but still…
The taller a building, the more stories or levels. The longer our lives, the more “stories” we add.
Hopefully, you’re not just a one or two-story building. I hope you are stretching skyward, and continuing to add to the stories of an already robust life.
The other question is not just how many stories you have, but how you will share them.
I have suggested in another post the idea of writing your own memoirs. This is one way to preserve our “story” and our “stories.” I believe that a life worth living is a story worth telling. True, you may not have aspirations to publish it publicly. But I think that writing down some stories from your life and making them available to your family is part of the legacy you will leave. Even if it is not comprehensive, and just outlines parts of your life story, it can still be an important part of the influence you leave behind.
Even if you don’t write it down, tell stories to your kids, your grandkids, and others to whom it may matter. Once we pass from the scene, one day, what will you leave behind that you were here? You have control of your narrative, of your story, so take the time to preserve it in a way that is meaningful.
You may prefer that your story simply be the good you have done for others, and the influence you have exerted that leaves the world a better place. Fair enough. That’s also a story. Keep adding them to the building of your life.
If you’ve followed my blog for some time, you’ve seen that finding ways to tell our story and to leave a legacy is a recurring theme of mine. Whatever your season of life, consider this.
So how many “stories” does your life have?
