Every week, I will shine the spotlight on some of the best storytelling in the business and offer my comments. “3 Great Stories of the Week” will post every Monday at 8 AM.

I have a mentor who scoffs at the idea that certain stories are considered “emotional” while others are not.

“Every story is about emotion,” she says.

One of the toughest parts of my job on a daily basis is capturing raw emotions in a story. People behave differently when they know their actions are being recorded, especially but not necessarily by a camera (people modify their behavior in front of a writer with a pen and paper, as well).

This week, I use this space to celebrate three great stories from last week that gave people glimpses into raw emotion — three very different types of emotions.

Skywire Live with Nik Wallenda (6/23/13, Discovery Channel): A big part of me simply does not get the ultimate point of events like Skywire Live, other than as a chance to say to everyone, “Look at what we can do.”

(Thank you for indulging the Sports Night reference … my favorite unsung TV show of the 90’s.)

That said, when Nik Wallenda did his Skywire walk across the Grand Canyon, he instantly mesmerized more than a million people who tuned in to watch, be it on the air or online.

Part of the draw is, of course, the suspense of whether or not Wallenda would make it across. But that is only a fraction of the equation; after all, I think most people assumed deep down he would make it, or why would the Grand Canyon and the Discovery Channel put so much money and muscle behind it?

More than that, I think people wanted to see a seemingly ordinary person do an extraordinary feat.

During the event, my Twitter feed featured all sorts of comments about the event. Some folks marveled about Wallenda’s wardrobe, mainly that he wore blue jeans to conquer the Canyon. Others commented on the number of times Wallenda thanked Jesus during the proceedings. Still others loved the interplay between Wallenda and his dad.

Wallenda bared himself to the world, and in doing so — and by doing a remarkable stunt — he became an instant celebrity.

Remembering Lorna Colbert (6/19/13, Comedy Central): This past Wednesday, comedian Stephen Colbert bared himself to the world as well.

Unfortunately it was a result of far more tragic circumstances.

Colbert’s mother passed away a week earlier, and he spent a week away from the show while mourning. When he returned Wednesday, he spent the first 3 1/2 minutes of his show paying tribute to his late mother, Lorna.

During his show, Colbert is not just a comedian; he plays a character — a character far different from the man himself. As a result, we rarely glimpse his genuine personality. We did so here, and it was a touching, soulful moment.

The Spurs, Heat, basketball, and life (6/21/13, Pounding The Rock): After two different posts extolling the virtues and innovation in today’s sports coverage, I felt it was only right to go to the well one more time after one of the finest NBA Finals in recent memory.

Games 6 and 7 between the Spurs and Heat were instant classics, and they led some wonderful prose and commentary from around the sports world. This article, from writer and Spurs fan Quincy Scott, delves into the emotions that come with watching a sport at its finest — especially when you have a rooting interest in one of the teams, and even more so when that team winds up on the losing end.

I did not have a rooting interest in the series; my favorite teams, the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks, both bowed out of the playoffs in the first round. But I was transfixed by these Finals, because they gave me everything I could ever desire as a basketball fan. By the end, fans all over the world realized we had watched greatness unfold before us, and ultimately, isn’t that what sports (and Skywire, for that matter) are all about?

In this article, Scott exhibits a simply beautiful way with words, but he triumphs mainly through his ability to convey his own raw emotions. Just about every paragraph is a masterwork of wordplay and artistry, but this one stood out for so expertly explaining what made these NBA Finals so special:

This is what binds me to every Spurs fan and every Heat fan in the world. We homo sapiens so rarely touch perfection, or even glimpse it. It’s fit that we seek inspiration by watching these gifted young men display moments of perfection, however brief. Perfection in a silly children’s game, sure. But perfection of any kind is wondrous.

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RELATED: 3 GREAT STORIES: THE NBA FINALS, AND INNOVATION IN SPORTS COVERAGE (PART 1 & PART 2)
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Have a suggestion for “3 Great Stories of the Week”? E-mail me at matt@tellingthestoryblog.com.