Of Blogs and Blarney

The 50^th anniversary of St. Patrick’s Church in Mexico City, coinciding happily with St. Patrick’s Day, was the occasion of a grand celebration. After all, we were the one English-speaking Catholic church in town and many of our parishioners claimed an Irish heritage. After a special Mass, there was a pot luck lunch, games for all ages, and the highlight of the day: a blarney contest.

Five gentlemen of the parish signed up to compete. In front of a rapt audience in the church hall, they each had 5 minutes to tell a story that began with “And then the leprechaun told me . . .”

The audience scored each story and the winner was crowned king of blarney. It was better than Saturday Night Live. I mostly remember the laughter as each gave us a story more absurd than the last. We laughed at the twisted plots and the imagined goofiness, laughed when they got stuck, laughed when one storyteller ended up in another’s yarn. We loved each story because it was wholly unscripted and we applauded the courage to get up and tell a story.

I love stumbling over blogs that are like that. They are blarney in disguise with stories that amuse, entertain, motivate. These aren’t the Top 10 SEO Plugins sorts of blogs, these are blogs drawn from the imagination yet informed by experience.

I hope you have found a few story blogs that perk up your day, because we all could use a little more blarney.

Here are some of my favorites!

The Happiness Project touts Gretchen Rubin’s books but the archives have some wonderful thoughts on creating and sharing happiness, much of which is drawn from Rubin’s life and research.

The TED Blog is as broad and absorbing as the TED Talks videos. It’s a grab bag of interesting people, insights and ideas.

The Amateur Traveler is part video channel, part travel journal, part travel agency. It’s also a vicarious look at parts of the world I’ll never otherwise visit.

image courtesy of Disneyland’s Californian Hotel.