my grandpa and narratives

I've decided blogging will have to take place while I'm busy or not at all! It's funny how I let myself do things like that. Drats.
I've recently found out that my grandpa is having trouble remembering things. One of those things you don't really want to hear ever - especially when you're far away. It made me think, though, about (among other things) the odds of my being here and being who I am and other philosophical drivel. My grandpa, when he was in the war, was a medic. The group of men he was stationed with was going to fight, but he couldn't go because he caught the measles! This story was told to me, mind you, as a young child, so the details are fuzzy. Most, if not all, the men who fought that day were killed. Measles saved my grandpa's life! Weird. Something as small and commonly inconvenient as the measles kept me from nonexistence. That's, without a doubt, a weird, melodramatic kind of story, but it's part of the narrative I think of when I think of my grandpa. I wonder, too, how often things like that happen of which I'm unaware. All these things that are really quite essential to not just my being here but also to my family's story that sometimes get passed over. So basically, all of this to say I wonder if we should put more emphasis on family narratives. Maybe we should put more emphasis on narratives in general. We remember where we came from so it shapes where we're going. Our country? Friendships? The catholic (small c) church? Other things? Sheesh. I'm fairly certain we could stop and think calmly (as a professor of mine would say) about endless narratives which we're a part of and are still affecting. I kind of like that idea. I kind of don't like that idea, too. Almost makes me want to be a historian... Just wondering if other people thought about this sort of thing as well. Maybe we could start a club and even have dps devise a slogan for t-shirts. : )