  .................................................. Happy Birthday Grandma Marge .................................................. Depending on how you know me and what you know about me -- it's very likely that you'll know one of the following things: 1. I'm something of a social constructionist 2. I'm a bookworm 3. I'm a "theater person" 4. I'm a debater But the center -- the core -- of what makes each of these things true about me is this: I love stories. And further: I believe that stories make people. I believe that story-ing is the fundamental human process.
And I have to pay a great debt of gratitude to my Grandma Marge for this value. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't call herself a social constructionist, but she's been telling stories for the last thirty three years, and given her skill, she's been doing it a lot longer. She grew up on a farm in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, her family having descended from William Brewster from the Mayflower and more recently from Kaiser Wilhelm. Half the stories she knows (and that's a "half" based on the ethos of hyperbole) she learned by peering through the register in her bedroom floor and listening to the goings on below. She had a lot of uncles who broke the heart of their mother and her mother alike, but the drama of their lives unfolding through the register made my grandma marge a keen observer of human nature and a natural relayer of human conflict, motivation and resolution. I don't want to tell too many of her stories here, because she's still writing her own book of stories -- Through The Register.
She has an amazing authorial voice where she has an ability to condense a whole world of human action into a quick sentence. Her stories are often told quickly, but there's always a hundred layers and nuances in each one. But I do want to honor that its her birthday and i want to affirm that the stories she's passed on to me, feel as visceral and warm as the afghans, sweaters, & mittens she's made for me.
They feel like they constitute me. And since this activity which combines: history and making and imagination and drama and performance and humor and tragedy -- is the one activity that i'm most devoted to in the world.... I wanted to tell you a little bit about her. Peace~ 
