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This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam.

Many years ago, when I was a child, my mother told me a family story.

It had to do with her brother, my uncle.

He was an extremely creative man with varied interests in books and music

and art. He could also be a little, how shall I put this, disorganized. My uncle was the kind of

person who was always ready to reminisce and he was an amazing storyteller. He could spin the

tiniest events into funny stories that had you laughing until you cried.

Anyway, the story my mother told me had to do with my uncle's wedding day.

On his way to the wedding venue, my uncle suddenly remembered he had forgotten to invite a dear

friend and fellow storyteller, his barber.

So he took a detour and went to the barber shop to make sure his friend came to the wedding.

When he got to the shop, the barber was busy with his customers and asked my uncle to wait while he finished.

My uncle happily settled down, and he and the barber traded funny stories as the scissors went snip-snip.

All this time, of course, the guests at the wedding and the prospective bride were getting

increasingly alarmed. Had something happened to the groom?

Had he gotten cold feet?

Was the marriage called off?

When my uncle finally showed up,

his barber triumphantly in tow,

he had no idea why everyone was upset.

I've always loved that story because it perfectly captured my uncle's attitude toward life.

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