The Stuff of Legends

Mid Saturday afternoon, Paul received a call from a friend of ours from the SCA who happened to be in town, and wanted to know if we'd be available for dinner.  Sure!  

One of the glorious things about the SCA is that in its own weird way, we are all one big happy (and sometimes disfunctional) family.  Despite living all over the world, over the years, our paths all tend to cross.  I met our friend years ago, when she and I both lived in Florida.  Paul on the other hand, met her even earlier when she came out to an event in California.  Kinda cool, actually.  We have a lot of people in common even though we met seperately.  The three of us enjoyed a good dinner out, and really enjoyed catching up on life, the universe and everything.  Being so heavily involved in history and our events, not often do we get to check in on what is happening in the real world, 9-5 Monday through Friday.  

Through the course of the evening, we all reminisced.  One thing about our friend, she is a truly engaging person.  What a strong personality!  I just love listening to her speak.  At one point, she told Paul about how she and I first met.  She painted a beautiful and emotional tableaux that spoke with depth, imagery, and true feeling.  She further tied it in to another tale about how we once again met years later after she had moved out of Florida, and about a very happy emotional reunion.  I stayed silent the whole time she spoke.  The beauty of her story nearly brought a tear to my eye.  There was only one little teensy weensy problem with the story...

... it didn't happen that way.

Despite the beauty of the tale, she placed our meeting a full year and a half before I could have ever possibly met her.  Sadly, our ACTUAL meeting was far less interesting than the story she told.  Even the tale of our reunion didn't quite happen as she told it.  Later on in the course of the evening, she told me the story about how she met Paul.  Again, a very, very entertaining story... if ONLY it had happened that way.

Now, having grown up in the south, I know a thing or two about how southern people tell tales.  Sometimes it isn't really about telling the story EXACTLY how it happened, but more about communicating the message or moral while painting the imagery perhaps how it SHOULD have happened instead of how it ACTUALLY happened.  I compare it to, say, women.  Some would say that a truly elegant lady does not wear make-up!  Well... maybe some blush... and maybe some mascara... and maybe some concealer, etc.  The lady is still elegant.. just "dressed up" a bit.  That is how good storytelling should be.  Now of course, some people tend to go overboard with the embellishments.  This goes beyond dressing up the story and instead becomes more like drastic cosmetic surgery.  You know... kinda how Disney "alters" classic literature by making it so that in the end, the bad guy and the good guy make up, hold hands, and sing songs in the town square.  After all, should the Hunchback really die?

Part of me felt a little awkward simply because her tale did not match up with my recollection.  "Should I say something?" I thought to myself.  "Maybe she is confusing me with somebody else."  But then again, did it really matter?  She told a great story, and we all got a free "feel-good" from it.  And there's something to be said about the beauty of such a thing.

I kinda wish that things really did happen as she had described.  Hmmmm... come to think of it, maybe I am mistaken.  Maybe we really DID meet on the dancefloor that night.  Maybe our meeting really WAS that magical and that memorable.  Yes, now that I think about it, I'm sure that she was right.  It really did happen that way.  We met on the dancefloor.  And from that night, my life would be changed forever.  Yes... I do like that version much better.