landscapes / Music / music video / video

Stories Told A Million Times

Timothy Price59 Comments

I was thinking about how the memory of the present is easily lost in the shuffle. The future is unpredictable other than the inevitable, but the past has a certain clarity. Stories from the past want to be told, but as memories from the present become lost, so does that last time the stories were told, creating a new personal paradigm — the stories will be told over and over and over and over again. 

Dawn

pTerodactyl at dawn

Stories Told A Million Times
By Timothy Price

[Verse 1]
Eyes no longer see the glory
Unable to focus on the future
They dwell on the past
Distant memories from years gone by

[Chorus]
Have I ever told you the story…
Yes, dear, you have. A million times…
How about the time I…
Yes, dear, you have!

[Verse 2]
Experiences lived years ago
Are as clear as yesterday
While yesterday seems a distant past
Long forgotten, swallowed by the mist

[Chorus]
Have I ever told you the story…
Yes, my friend. A million times…
How about the time I…
Yes, my friend, you have!

[Bridge]
Mind goes numb
Speech grows dumb
Stories once told
Now on repeat
Played over, and over
And over again

[Chorus]
Have I ever told you the story…
Yes, grandpa. A million times…
How about the time I…
Yes, grandpa, you have!

[Outro]
Will you remember my stories told
When I’ve passed on, dead and gone?
Stories told a million times
Do they get retold or die with the old
Buried and lost to the living
Told and retold among the dead

59 thoughts on “Stories Told A Million Times”

  1. Thought provoking lyrics Tim. Memories are a fickle bunch. With no one to tell they are wasted, told too many times they are ignored, the act of telling can be therapy in themselves, repeated to often they annoy the told, but in truth they are the things that keep our sanity and give us the most joy in our closing years

    Reply

    • Our stories are important to our well-being, but it becomes more difficult to remember who you told the stories to. When I was a kid, I used to ask my grandma to tell me the same stories over again and again. They never got dull. But today, we are so inundated with information and media, that telling a good story more than once to the same person is considered a sign of dementia.

      Reply

  2. What a great post on multiple levels. Stories we share together popped up first, but then so many others. Many are happy, some are sad. So much to think through again.

    Reply

    • Thanks, Susan. Your stories are especially important to you, and you have so many interesting stories to tell. I love listening to your stories.

      Reply

  3. A moving, mellow piece Tim!

    This is why people engage in the arts. Music, books, poetry, paintings, sculpture, etc. A piece, or more, of their moment is re-lived in what they leave behind.

    The tyrants and power mongers’ stories are left behind, and yes, they destroy art so we do not get to find alternative stories.

    That’s about all we can do until the sun burns out… leave a mark… on the cave wall.

    xo-

    Ps your sunrises and sets are a beautiful tale… a painting in motion of what you said here.

    Reply

    • Thanks for your wonderful comment, Resa. We do keep our stories alive through art, and there are so many power-hungry people who want to destroy art and the stories we tell through our art. But they also seek to destroy it through healthcare. As I mentioned to Brian, if you tell a story more than once to the same person, health professionals say it’s a sign of dementia.

      Reply

      • LOL!
        Oooogagagaga! I am sooooo demented!
        Lock me up before I make yet another gown… or worse – draw something, again.

        They could be – Wealth Care Confessionals.

        (Lock me up before I make yet another gown… or worse – draw something, again.Lock me up before I make yet another gown… or worse – draw something, again.)

        xoxo

        Reply

        • Like one flew over the cuckoo’s nest? Another gown sewn, another sketch drawn, one then the other over and over and over again. It’s a straight jacket for you, young lady!

          Of course, our place is certainly a cuckoo’s nest with crazy cats, crazy cat people, and all our antics set on repeat, played over and over and over again.

          Reply

  8. I understand it is a fact that as you age you recall your earlier life better than your near past. My mom remembers her own childhood clearly but remembers little of my childhood years.

    Reply

  13. This is my husband every time we drive through White River, Vermont, where he lived as a kid. I don’t stop him for telling it again.

    “Have I ever told you the story…
    Yes, my friend. A million times…
    How about the time I…
    Yes, my friend, you have!”

    Reply

  14. Tim, I keep coming back to your thought about “the memory of the present.” We are so often looking backwards or anticipating what comes next that we forget the present is already becoming memory. And perhaps every time we retell an old story, we bring something of our present selves to it, so the story continues to live and change with us.

    Reply

    • There is that, but losing memory of the present is caused by several things, much of which I know little about. But for me, brain fog from chemo still affects my short-term memory, and then add aging eyes and ears to forgetfulness in real-time, and reading, writing, and conversation become more challenging. It doesn’t take sharp eyes and ears and a clear brain to dwell on the past, because memories of the past seem to be embedded and easier to recall as one ages, as opposed to short-term memory that seems to be cached and easily lost in real-time when something else takes its place during a conversation or trying to write a thought. Does that make sense?

      Reply

      • Yes, Tim, that does make sense, and thank you for explaining what you meant more fully. The memories of the distant past can remain remarkably present, while a thought or conversation happening in real time can be much more difficult to hold onto before something else takes its place.

        Memory has become very important to me lately because my mother has difficulty with her short-term memory. Through my conversations with her, I am beginning to understand just how deeply memory is woven into our sense of who we are. The experiences we have carried with us, how we once saw the world, the choices we made, and even how the person we were when we were young continues to live within the person we become. Your thoughts have given me another way of considering all of this. So, many thanks for a wonderful conversation!!!

        Reply

  15. You have just explained one of my theories in life, and that is the theories of the expanding past.

    Stories get bigger and bigger as they grow older and older.

    There’s nothing wrong with that

    Reply

    • Enhancing stories makes them more interesting for the storytellers and the listeners. When people were not inundated with entertainment, storytelling was the entertainment and one of the ways of keeping culture alive. Thanks, Mark.

      Reply

    • The old Grim Brothers Grim are those stories of old told over and over again. Helped keep kids out of trouble in days of old. Thanks, Teagan.

      Reply

  17. Such a wonderful video, Tim! A poignant post. Sharing a memory or two with loved ones leads to great family stories. Although it depends on who tells it. 🤣🤣🤣

    Reply

  18. I’ve been consuming a lot of media about the bronze age collapse and the stories that went into — and came out of — that turning point. The Odyssey is of course the one most in the current zeitgeist, but there are other stories that survived civilizational collapse, and a lot of the records and archaeological evidence from the era paints a rich picture that often makes me sort of nostalgic for a time I could never witness nor experience (we’re being optimistic about current risks of civilizational collapse in my lifetime here).

    It invites reflection from a macro perspective down to more individualistic influence where I think about my own life, and those I know, knew, or will know, changes that occur over time and the things that stay the same.

    your song and video made me very emotional; the parts that I have experienced myself, the parts I only know through stories, and the parts that imply stories I have not yet heard myself. The catalog of memories and stories that I could put together from my own life, and the stories from those that have passed that I miss.

    I think telling stories and remembering is one of the most deeply human things we do, and the organic, changeable nature of our memories and the way we tell those stories is endearing and important philosophically to how our myths and legends come about, personally, societally, and civilizationally.

    Long winded way to say, very excellent song; it’s not often that music rips emotion from me but this definitely did. very beautiful. ❤

    Reply

    • Motorcycles were a huge part of my life from age 9 to 22. I remember when you were going to riding school to get your motorcycle license ten years or so ago, you called me and asked why I had not taught you to ride, after you discovered you were a natural when it came to riding motorcycles. I had to blame your mother and grandpa for talking me into selling my last motorcycle when we got married, and your mother for discouraging me from getting another motorcycle after we were married. There are a lot of wild stories from my motorcycle youth, and you would have to listen to some of my old friends tell some of the stories to believe them.

      Stories, myths, and legends are an important part of culture, but I believe a lot of people’s patience for listening to stories that should be told more than once is eroding since we are so inundated with information and media. Thanks for the wonderful, heartfelt comment, Tristan.

      Reply

  19. I love the video and the song lyrics. It reminded me of my dad and even sounded a little bit like him. Excellent production job. Well done my friend. Thank you for sharing this with me. 🙏🏼🩵

    Reply

  20. You’ve shared three beautiful photos, Tim, and the words to your song speak volumes. Over the years, I have recorded some of the stories that my Mom and Dad told over and over again, and I’m so glad I did. I never tire of hearing them or their voices.

    Reply

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