“There is an island…where rivers run deep…where the sea, sparkling in the sun, earns it the name ‘Jewel of the Antilles’” begins the show Once On This Island. At it’s core, this musical play is about the art of storytelling, how stories affect our lives, and as one of the closing lines state “Our lives become the stories that we weave.” The show itself is one elaborate story as the characters in the beginning start out as storytellers telling a story to quiet a frightened young girl. As the story progresses, the storytellers take on various roles in the story and act it out. It’s a great testament to the power of storytelling, how stories tell us where we come from, and what we stand for.

When you think about it, this is really true, especially in my extended Williams family, and I realized it this past weekend on the Williams golf trip. On Friday night, when we all went out to eat, the guys at my table were swapping stories all night - ranging from golf trip stories to childhood stories. While I’ve heard many of these stories, I never tire of hearing them again, because these are the stories I grew up hearing. These stories have given me a picture of the Williams family, and what life was like in the previous generation.

There are famous golf stories such as the “walkoff”, or the “list” stories. Williams childhood stories about growing up in the neighborhood where life was about summers with cousins, baseball, and beating each other up. Canada stories, fishing stories, stories about the legendary Uncle Bill Williams, Jidu Tom Williams, Grandma Effie, etc. I don’t remember what any of these relatives were like, but I feel like I know them through the stories.

When I thought about this, these storytelling men aren’t just reminiscing about the “good old days”. They carry these stories around with them as a part of their lives now. Some of the characters come and go, some of them have passed away. But, they still live on in the stories, and the younger generation, like myself, are able to still get to know them through these stories.

And that is why events like this golf trip are so important. It’s really not about playing golf. It’s about getting together to spend time with our family, the other “characters” in our life stories. And as countless golf trips have proven, it’s also about adding on to the wealth of stories that become part of the Williams tradition handed on from generation to generation. I’m sure that these Williams Golf Trips will join the ranks of stories from Canada trips, etc., and will be told to my kids and all of the others in the new generations.

It just goes to show that our lives really do become the stories that we weave.

Williams Golf Trip 2007

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