Stories-Please Share Yours Here

A hundred thousand years ago if you went looking for a human, you would find several different types. At least 8 or 9 that we know of. Each with its own unique traits. We weren't all "cavemen" back then. In fact, us, Sapiens, were not even the smartest. What set us apart was two things: Most other humans only bonded in very tight nit groups, and groups larger than ten were highly unusual. Homo Sapiens (us) learned to make friends in large groups….and Sapiens may have been the first to create a shared story. You see, when we came on the scene we changed things. Forget groups of ten, we can be friends with up to 150 people (a limit that seems to be fairly accurate even to this day). But the biggest thing we brought into the world: we could create stories, share those with others, and help them share our vision of the world. You see we weren't the smartest or the strongest. Stories bound us. Stories allowed us to share a collective vision of the universe. This universe, that we all only perceive through our limited apparatus(es) as the brain conceives it. We each create these tiny worlds in our minds as we move through reality, as we define reality with our senses and our mind, and we bound it together with stories. With rich stories of heroes, of functional stories like countries and government and money (all stories we collectively agree to believe in, for better or worse, to evolve society). Stories are what binds us as a people, and it’s what we leave behind when we are gone. I have always believed in the power of a beautiful story. Shared stories are how we conquered the planet. A collective vision is how we went to the moon and created modern medicine. In the end, we are a people of stories and stories is who and what we are.

Tobi, my son, he filled this world with stories. He touched so many lives and lifted so many up. He doesn't just live in me, he lives in a legion of people. He touched our souls and made us better for having known him. He lifted up the downtrodden and fought against injustice when he saw it. He spoke for those without a voice and gave those in deepest need a smile when they most needed it. The world didn't deserve him, and we are so much poorer without him, but we have his stories...and they are beautiful. I don't normally post at such length, or ramble like this, but I wanted to get to the rub of this:

If you knew Tobi, then he lives in you. You hold a view of Tobi that I don't have, and I hold a view that you don't have, but through stories we share the world of Tobi with others, and he continues to live on in the thousands of lives he touched. Continue to tell his story, so that he lives on in you, and the lives of many others, and maybe, every so once in while, to honor him, maybe do something reckless like feed a raccoon french fries or try to rescue an animal that's beyond saving.

I plan to try and consolidate as many pictures of Tobi as I can, as well as any videos of him and they will be on this website. I also permanently linked copies of his service for those who wish to hear the stories of Tobi we shared there (the funeral home link will cease to work in early December but I have my own digital copy). The site will not be monetized, but there will be links to nonprofits for those who wish to express their gratitude to Tobi in a monetary fashion. My hope is that, even after the service, his friends and family will stop by here and share a story of Tobi, so that the many versions of him and the many stories of him may continue to live on in the hearts and minds of many people. His stories will survive, and hopefully inspire. We are a people of stories, and stories is what binds us. I want his story to live on. Please leave your stories of him here, so we all may share in his light and the many lives he touched.

-Josh Billingsley