In case you missed it, Dunkin Donuts (recently rebranded Dunkin) introduced a new menu item at the end of February:
Bacon.
They call their new menu item Snackin’ Bacon, but it’s just bacon.
A bag of bacon. Eight half-strips of wrapped in “a portable sleeve for on-the-go snacking ease.”
Sometime in 2019, in some boardroom in the Dunkin headquarters in Canton, MA, an executive pitched this idea to a similar group of executives, probably by saying something like,
“Let’s do bacon. Just bacon. A big ole’ bag of bacon.”
Whoever that person was, they have by unwavering and eternal admiration, not because I’ve actually purchased a bag of Dunkin’s bacon (though I’m not opposed) but because so often the simplest ideas are the best ideas but also the hardest ideas to propose and support.
When it comes to memorizing multiplication facts, for example, there are thousands of books, online resources, games, and toys, all designed to help a student memorize that all-important alphabet of math, but in the end, the best way to memorize multiplication facts is to simply practice daily.
Find the facts that you don’t know, and memorize them through repetition.
It’s not sexy, and it’s often not what students and their parents want to hear, but it works.
The same often holds true for storytelling. When it comes to finding a story to tell, we all have those amazing, improbable, incredible, unbelievable moments in our lives that make good stories, but the best stories are almost always found in the smaller, simpler moments of our lives.
I was put on trial for a crime I did not commit. I once evaded the police in a high speed (albeit very brief) chase. I once administered first aid to a boy who had a hole blown in his leg by the backfire of a school bus. I was performed completely naked in a comedy club in Attleboro, MA during a hypnosis show. I once dammed up a New Hampshire river, stopping the flow of water to a popular tourist attraction downstream that relied on that flow of water. I was once kissed by a mother of a student during a parent-teacher conference.
I have yet to tell any of these stories. I may tell them someday, but I’d much prefer to tell stories about the little moments of my life, when my heart and mind were changed through the everyday words or actions of others. The kind of stories that my audience will know and understand and be able to connect.
This is hard for some storytellers to hear, especially when they are world travelers, professional mountaineers, or have constant contact with celebrities.
So often, storytellers are drawn to the incredible, amazing, unbelievable moments of their lives. These feel like great stories, and they can be, but simple is almost always better.
There is nothing simpler – and perhaps more delicious – than a bag of bacon.
I salute you, unnamed Dunkin executive, on your wisdom and courage to suggest something so simple and so perfect.
