The Beauty in Simple Stories

Great post, what you said is really helpful to me. I can't agree with you anymore. I have been talking with my friend about, he though it is really interesting as well. Keep up with your good work, I would come back to you.

Chris,

I think simple stories are better because they get right to the point. Complex stories make me feel like people do not know what they are talking about and are just rambling.

Garry,

Thanks for the picture and story, a funny story that gets a point across.

Chris, I agree. About 10 days, 1/2 a city block exploded on Main St. We lost a life, artists lost their life's work, merchants lost everything. A week after, I wrote a simple, heart-felt post with a simple, heart-felt photo. I wrote it for me, but it's simplicity has touched many lives, including the shop owner. People close to her (I don't know her personally) tell me I helped inspire her desire to rebuild. You can read at: http://bridgetcavanaugh.com/post/85263609/what-...

Thanks as always for grounding us all!
www.twitter.com/bcavanaugh

@Dave Kawalec
Disagree about your point abt Hemingway story. All things remain open to multiple interpretations. Hence Nike "Just Do It" allows for the reader/slash buyer to fill in the blank with running, sex, etc...while all the while encouraging them to just buy the damn sneakers. The "attentive eye" I reference as able to create story which plays to those varieties...

great picture, i love the expression and posture of this man.

even greater point. Simply Inspiring.

i haven't read the story yet, but my first thought is that he looks more satisfied than her. that hes probably happily married and she might still be on the "prowl". people watching is so much fun.

140 characters, a blog post, a television show, a book, a podcast, a keynote presentation, a business meeting.

We're all just telling stories, aren't we?

Why do you assume the story is about the man?

Hey, folks -- If you liked the photo and story Chris posted here, you might also enjoy the one linked below, which likewise involved a humorous situation and a picture taken by someone else, using my camera. This one is titled "Dancing like Khrushchev:"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwilmore/560320586...

I like being taken from point A to point B as fast as possible.

Life is simple all the rest is just confusion whether intentional to distract and blind or put out by the confused.

Sheila

I don't know if I have caught your meaning or not.
But just be reading this simple post, I felt inspired and recalled that many people (myself included) tend to complicate their posts with many distractions. Now, I've just started to blog in a simpler way. It's so much more easier for readers to understand, and easier to write for bloggers too. Thanks Chris.

Oh, I didn't figure there was any question about that; in fact, I like to joke that anyone who has any question about my orientation need only make a quick perusal of my Flickr page, including my favorites, which should suffice to remove all doubt!

You may want to check my blog. My most recent post is a link to yet another Flickr picture, captioned as "An Open Letter to President Obama." That got a lot of attention, too; and man, did I have fun writing it! (The blog is linked to my name here.)

I was always afraid to start blogging before because i thought it had to be very complex.. Yes, I agree with you.. simple works = )

I agree with Derrich
;-)

I agree with Michael Calienes above. "Complexity Breeds Invisibility." In the same thread, I think Da Vinci's famous quote rings true "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

@Garry - I'm so glad you came by. I think your storytelling was what drew me to the piece in the first place. The picture alone was nice, but the story mattered.

I'm glad you came by. I had no doubt that you weren't gay. I'm often distracted in such ways.

I assure you that the man in question is most definitely not gay; in fact, it takes a lot to distract my attention from a pretty woman, and this book managed to do exactly that! So I do encourage you to read it when you can. Robert Caro is one heckuva good writer!

I would also be interested in this picture if the woman were reading the book and the man was standing there smiling at the camera. How would you interpret it then? So much of our world is interpreted through men's eyes. What if either the man or the woman were gay? That reminds me, I want to read that book he's reading!

Simple or not, stories are a powerful way to communicate anything, from complex ideas to motivating the listener to join a cause. We're hard-wired for stories. This goes way back to the fire in the cave.

I can't claim full credit for the image, although it was taken with my camera and under my direction, and the story accompanying it is all mine. But I am quite flattered to find it here, and you folks have brightened my day considerably. Thanks, everyone!

You might want to check out my blog while you're at it. The link is provided here, and I hope you enjoy it, although it isn't as good as this one. :-)

I simply agree.

Oh yes -- simple stories (photos, paintings, writing, music) allow me to think, to imagine what comes next. Or to embrace something too big to capture in words or pigments. (Hemingway's 6 words, for example, noted from comment above.)

I paint for story, often from much-loved photos, as exemplified here: http://paintedgenerations.com/blog/2008/10/pain...

Thanks for making this point, Chris. I thinks it's a critical one -- people come back for stories -- especially as they can relate to them, and possibly benefit in some way from having read them.

Barb

@Richard Reeve: Both the beauty and the problem with the Hemingway short story is that is doesn't suggest one meaning. There are thousands of stories that it tells at the same time. "An entrepreneurial shoe store employee buys his former boss' outdated stock and tries to build a new life one pair of shoes at a time." is as valid an interpretation as "Parents grieving the loss of their baby make the courageous decision to move on."

How is that helpful in conveying specific meaning?

There is a time and a place for brevity. However, boiling something down really means boiling something away. The world is a complex and subtle place. This incessant need to compress all of it into easily-digestible chunks leads to the headline journalism that is shaking our democracy, and the black-or-white thinking that continues to fuel conflicts like Israel/Palestine.

If we stopped filling our lives with nonsense, then maybe we'd have room to consider the important things in the proper depth and context.

I find on those days when writer's block kicks in, looking at pictures can set the creative juices flowing towards a decent blog post that may have otherwise laid dormant within the grey matter. :)

Thanks for sharing.

Karl

I'm 57. As one gets older, you begin to appreciate that simplicity (aka purity) has incredible power.

You'll find that applicable to music, food, communications, and many other things.

Everything can be simple. Like Seth Godin said " Google didnot make any new or creative, it just made simple and easier".

The simple pleasures in life is what makes it worth living. In anticipation of my post today, I wanted a picture of a particular building in downtown LA, so yesterday afternoon, a friend of mine and I went. After spending time our LA's lovely freeways, we made it there, I took the pictures I wanted, and I thought we were heading back home.

However, my friend decided to surprise me by taking me to the entrance to the Paramount Studios, which I'd never seen and which also worked great in my post today.

So, we stopped by for a few minutes while I took some pictures there, too.

A small surprise made by a friend that made my day. Yes, I love the simple things in life.

In our business, complexity breeds invisibility.

All effective story, heck, all communication, is simple. But it takes an "attentive eye": one that recognizes the compositional value of contrast and juxtaposition, irony, suspense and foreshadowing, and above all a thirst for meaningfulness.

Recalling the beauty of Hemingway six words short story, which I'm sure many have heard. For those that haven't read it: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

This does make the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words" ring true. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_picture_is_worth...
The comments that go with the picture are very interesting.

How do you find these gems? There are so many items out there and yet you seem to track down the most interesting ones. This could be used as post about social media or just about anything.