"As a child I was imparted with many secrets green and gold, In the Sundays playing records, and in the stories being told, We must pass them on..." Shay Veno

        I grew up on stories of my home in Southeast Alaska.  Sitka is a historical meeting ground between the native Tlinget,  the settling Russians, the Americans, and when the mining and fishing created a need for more labors, Chinese, Filipino and Mexican immigrants.  I grew up on these stories that define my home town, and stories that define my family and our history, from Ireland and Scandinavia to Alaska.   With each story, I was given the opportunity to learn. 

            Through the radio, I grew up on stories of the world outside Alaska, and another style of storytelling.  I spent many nights listening to A Prairie Home Companion, or Rider's Radio Theater, and just as many listening to music, and taking the opportunity to learn.

        Through music, and through stories, I learned a social history that went beyond my history books, complementing, and sometimes challenging, my schooling.  Through extensive travel, I have been privileged to watch the conjunction of the world's stories, history and culture, and have another opportunity to learn.

        While a junior in high school, my parents took jobs in Albania, and I had the opportunity to witness what stories mean to another culture.  As I studied the American Revolution via. correspondence, around me people were facing the same problems and challenges as the framers of our government faced.  I found that I was in good company as I tried to understand American history.  I spent one lunch listening to an Albanian parliamentarian charged with the drafting of the Albanian Constitution picking my father's brain.  The next day, as I was walking home, I was stopped by someone who wanted to buy me a drink, and ask a question.  "Who was right, Jefferson, or Hamilton?"  I had not gotten far enough in my studies to understand the question, let alone answer it.  I could not have turned down that opportunity to learn if I wanted to.

        When I brought those experiences with me to College, and was offered the chance to design my own major to further my life's studies, the choice I wanted to take was really quite obvious. I graduated from Saint Olaf College, in Northfield Minnesota, with a BA degree in Stories and Society. Saint Olaf used to have a program called the Paracollege, which allowed for students to design their own major to more closely fit their life's studies than might be allowed by a traditional major. For me, that meant an interdisciplinary merging of Sociology, Political Science, Folklore, History, English and Music.

        We are surrounded by stories. They tell us who we are and where we have been. If we can listen to them well enough, they give us a good idea of where we may be going. Stories are our best link to the past. Indeed, we must pass them on.