Story-telling.

Over the past month or so, our home phone has fairly leapt off the hook. Our answering machine flashes a number in the high double-digits, indicating that we have scores of messages awaiting our ears.

The reason for our sudden tele-popularity is that it's election time in New York city and everyone and their cousin seems to be clamoring for our vote--clamoring in the form of pleading robo-calls.

On another note, once again the United States seems to be marching on its way to yet another war. Everyone understands that we're supposed to bomb Syria's Assad because he used chemical weapons but no one quite understands why it matters to us. And where the billions our incursions will cost is coming from. After all, we have no money for schools, for roads, for food for the poor, for unemployment relief, to battle climate change.

The point of today's post isn't politics.

The point is this: in an era where every pundit says the words "story-telling" approximately every 30 seconds, no one in either case cited above has articulated a compelling story as to why I should support their position.

Allegedly silver-tongued Barack Obama has failed to paint a picture of a world where chemical weapons are used with impunity. He's failed to own up to his own failure (how did Syria amass these weapons in the first place.) And he's failed to say why the red-line he drew was drawn.

In New York's mayoral race, not a single candidate has given me a single reason why.

I happen to think that talking about story-telling is thriving but story-telling is actually dead.