“Yesterday’s bread.”

In our POS system it’s labeled “Day old bread.” In fact, that’s what we usually call it around the store, and that’s what it is in its simplest terms. But I saw the sign in our store advertising “yesterday’s bread” and had to marvel at the marketing wisdom behind it. Day old bread is damaged goods. Yesterday’s bread is a story. It implies the whole series of events that starts with laying out dough, takes one through a day of interactions and ends with saving and reusing what would otherwise be waste. It’s a tiny picture of disappointment and redemption.

That’s such a clear case study for what a story does. It pulls you along on a journey and leaves you with a gift, some bigger idea about life. The best stories give us hope to deal with difficulty. Whether they tie up neatly or examine suffering and uncertainty, stories do their best work by showing us that there is beauty around us and that beauty is possible.