Story Reruns

I'm sensitive to story reruns even though I enjoy watching good movies (and TV series like Seinfeld) several times.  A sign of aging is forgetting who you have told what story to - which is why I normally watch the person's face carefully and ask "Have I told you this story before".   More times than not, people shake their head and listen intently to a re-run hoping not to offend the story teller.After all, - a person tells the story mainly for themselves - to relish in the memory and share it with a friend.

I like re-listening to stories of others to absorb the details.  If you have already heard the "punch line", you can now spend time understanding the fringes of the theme - the inflections, the emotions of the author, the supporting actors, etc.  Unlike a re-run of a movie, the  re-run story can even change based on the context, the accuracy of the author's memory, and variations in themes. 

This is blog number 781 (and almost the 5th anniversary) and it won't be long before the stories enter re-runs. :)