Your stories are worth preserving

Ever heard of StoryWorth?

Chances are, if you fall into a certain demographic — in other words, if you are old — you’ll run into this somewhere along the way.

Trust me, I fall into that demographic. I am old.

Not decrepit. Not failing. But definitely not as young as I used to be.

StoryWorth bills itself as “the most meaningful gift for your family.”

That may be. But it’s not for everyone.

Our first encounter with StoryWorth came a little over a year ago when our daughters acquired it for my wife. What is it? It’s a subscription, but it’s also a commitment to buy a book. And the recipient of the gift is the person who writes the book.

Here’s how it works.

Every week, the recipient of the StoryWorth gift receives an email with a question or a prompt intended to entice the recipient to write something about his or her life.

The recipient then responds to the email, and those responses are collected over 52 weeks until there’s enough to publish a small edition of a book for the kids and grandchildren.

In other words, it is homework.

At least that’s how my wife saw it. Though she’s an excellent storyteller, she finds writing a chore. The story works better over a dinner table than it does when it’s put down on paper.

The questions didn’t help.

They were banal at best. Did you ever play any pranks as a kid? What was your favorite trip with your family? What’s your fondest memory of childhood?

That last one was particularly annoying. While I have plenty of fond memories of childhood, I do not rank them. I don’t play favorites. I don’t give them a letter grade.

Faced with these queries, my wife did the only sensible thing: She procrastinated. (She would also agree that procrastination is one of her super powers.)

To date, after well over 50 prompts from StoryWorth, she has responded to about a dozen. The resulting book is either going to be a long time coming or a very slim volume.

As you might guess, sensitive soul that I am, I teased her about this.

That’s because I knew that the big downside to procrastination is the guilt that accompanies it. You put something off or set it aside, but it’s still there in the back of your mind, nagging you to get the work done.

All well and good until I received my StoryWorth invitation/gift for Father’s Day.

Now it was my turn, and even though I have written for a living for decades, it seemed like a chore, a task, a job to be done, like flossing or taking out the trash.

And like my wife, I found the questions annoying.

It’s possible to click on other possible questions, but then the website asks you to give your book/memoir a title.

How could I give it a title when I hadn’t written the doggoned thing yet?

John Young gave me the answer.

Connie and I were down in Indianapolis to celebrate the life of one of my favorite cousins, and because we were in the neighborhood we were able to get together with John — local civic leader and pillar of the community — for lunch on the following Sunday.

He brought the topic up first. “Have you ever heard of StoryWorth?” he asked.

Since Connie was weeks behind in her homework and I was just starting to grapple with those annoying questions, we were stunned when he told us he loved it.

Two factors played a role:

•StoryWorth came into his life at a time when his wife Gretchen was facing dire health problems, providing him with important distraction.

•He ignored all the rules.

Forget the questions, said John. Write what you want to write.

In his case, that was a series of chapters that constituted an autobiography which has now been published for his family. He let StoryWorth know he would only play the game if he could play by his rules.

And maybe that’s the smart way to go.

My wife is still procrastinating for the most part. I’m writing but I’m still trying to get my footing.

And maybe our kids are right. There’s value in getting these tales preserved for the next generation. I wish I had the equivalent from my parents.