"...We owe it to each other to tell stories"

So, I've been reading a fair bit by Neil Gaiman lately. I picked up American Gods at the beginning of the year and loved it; read through the first two Sandman collections in my free time early in the semester and plan to go back for the rest later; and bought his short story collection Fragile Things a month or so ago, which helped keep me sane over my Spring Break. It's in a poem from this collection, "Locks", and in his forward about it that the phrase I used to title this entry appears, and it's become one of my favorite quotes.

There's something about sharing stories with people, whether the stories are real or fictionalized, that binds you in a way to them. Stories allow us to share what's important to us without the awkwardness of needing to explicitly announce it. They allow us to share in one another's experiences and to understand why we are who we are. They provide outlets for the passing on of history and culture and morality and everything else in a manner so effective that in thousands of years, they haven't reduced in importance. Ultimately, the stories that we choose to share and the way we express and portray them, in a very real way, are a reflection of who we are.

Not much else to say, I guess. Just do me a favor: go out and tell some stories with the people you love.