Kevin Kling came into his own as a storyteller when while in college he realised: Saturday night was only as good as the story you could tell about it on Sunday.
It’s the way in which we share the full measure of our experience.
The onus is on the listener to take what you like and leave the rest. Carefully chosen words unconsciously deliver a full message. Just how full, is revealed not just in the first telling, but when compared to the retelling.
We, in the West, let go the gift of storytelling in the last half of the twentieth century; in large part because we devoted ourselves to science. Science would reveal explanations for everything “unexplainable”. We no longer needed to spin yarns for children about the noise of thunder or from where the rain came.
The filmmakers, songwriters and poets never lost sight of the value of a good story. Interestingly, and most notably in the case of film, they just keep retelling the old ones. If I said that StarWars was the Jesus story redux, a few might agree, some would deem me blasphemous, others just dismiss. If I argued that the Matrix was like the Abraham story, perhaps the same result. It doesn’t really matter, the telling of a story is enough. J.K. Rowling got a generation reading again! Harry Potter’s adventures don’t require interpretation, but -
the Monomyth is a term academics use to describe one story common to the mythology of all cultures– the Hero’s Journey. The visual says it all:
My intention is to further explore how our understanding of this universal story can inform our own. How grasping the significance of it may actually be a call to action. There are hero’s among us. You are invited to explore your own story.
We live in challenging times. We can choose to despair, or to allow them to be transformative. You can choose the journey. It begins with you.
Please comment.
If you are intrigued, these links may be of further interest:
The developer of the Matrix, Christopher Vogler, describes it in his words http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73c36lzbyNw
A lovely comparison of the myths of different cultures and life stages can be found at: http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00212/monomyth.html
Our own history on this island was well preserved by the efforts of the Irish Folklore Commission: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Folklore_Commission
The archives are available to the public, and many on-line thanks to University College Dublin: http://www.ucd.ie/folklore/en/
