Life is best understood and explored through story  

As long as people have walked this earth, stories have been told. Big and small, ordinary and special, individual and collective. They have many functions. They serve for instruction and entertainment, they teach and they comfort. They support and heal. Through stories traditions are passed on; ideas about man, about God and the world; rituals, values and norms. Stories can also help to work through traumatic experiences. Stories help people who have lost direction in life, to re-find the path. They give support and direction in times of big transitions in life; from adolescent to adulthood, at birth and death. They give new perspectives. To summarize story functions as a teacher, educator, pastor, therapist and coach at the same time.

 Impact occurs when the written/told story dialogues with my own story

We relate to a story by grabbing onto the parts that “click” with us and not worrying too much about the parts that don’t hold much for us. We tend to look for what is interesting for us in the light of our own experience.

Story-telling always deals with multiple contexts. There is the original context in which the events happened. Many times that context is unfamiliar or largely lost for us. There is the own context in which the story is re-told or re-read. That context usually is the dominant one. In this context the story events/words is not the biggest issue but our reactions, and our experiencing together is “the point”.  In a normal story situation the context of the telling is usually the one that counts. It is usually the reason to tell the story – not the events themselves.

Our access to stories is virtually unlimited

Life is so complex that it needs an unlimited amount of stories to express what we go through, how we think and feel, and how we survive. These stories give us access to examples, models and pictures of how the pieces of life fit together. They help us to disengage from a story we find no longer credible or adequate. They show new ways to appraise things that had none or not much value to us.

Primarily we have access to stories of daily life when we socialize and communicate with others. In the course of everyday life we share with one another  stories of completed tasks, aroused feelings, disappointed expectations, surfaced conflicts, lost motivations and joyful achievements. Human emotions like fear, sadness, strength and peace, when articulated, give us opportunities to understand and identify.

Literature is another source of stories that helps us understand and articulate what we feel and think, our predicament, the choices we make in life. In making available to us a vast arrange of stories and life experiences literature helps us to sort out what images, values and choices are of value to our own lives. Books, short stories and poetry give us language to explore the majesty of nature, the meaning of courage, the redemptive power of love, the depths of loneliness, the beauty of grace and the moral intricacies of life.

Film is another source of stories, accessible to us. Films visualize for us the big themes of life like love, hope, loneliness, conflict, grief, temptation and forgiveness in many different settings and epochs. They help us to get a hold of our own story. We may get personally affected and start to understand that certain things have brought more joy or pain than we previously have been aware of. They present us with alternative ways to respond to the challenges of everyday life. Many have a favorite movie with a story that has made an impact on his or her life.

Of course, other cultural expressions like art and music present us with stories as well.

Rinus, October 2009

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