Telling stories is what humans do that no other animal can do.
People don’t want trite stories, they want interesting stories.
Mostly, interesting stories are exaggerated stories.
People who are paid to tell stories exaggerate stories.
Have I witnessed a gun fight?
No, but I had a gun pulled on me.
A heated exchange started with a man on a bus in Argentina.
We exited the bus at different stops, but ended up running into one another.
A gun came half way out of his fishing bag. I wanted to hit him. The gun stopped me.
That’s the closest I’ve come to a gun fight.
No.
A bunch of us went camping. We had rifles and were shooting into the mountainside.
Three guys came running and shouting, “We were on the mountainside, you almost shot us.”
The shooting stopped.
I met an Apache helicopter pilot.
“Yes, he stood on a hillside. . . Ok.”
Then came the clacking of machine gun fire.
A puff of smoke.
“He flew into the air and fell into a gully.”
Did you feel anything?
“No.”
I’m paid to tell stories.
Have I ever exaggerated?
Of course, but none of that today.