The Power of Story: My Word for 2017


I'm an artist and a writer.


Which means, at heart, what I really am is a storyteller.

My family would tell you that I've always been a storyteller, in fact.  Sometimes, that meant I'd make everybody laugh at the communal dinner table (the good aspect of it), and sometimes, it meant I had elaborate excuses as to why I popped the screen out of my bedroom window and snuck out for the night (entertaining only in retrospect.)*

But those kinds of stories aren't the only ones that affect our lives.

We have so many myths that direct what we do that we're hardly even aware of them.

Societal stories.  Religious mythologies.  Family tales.  Our own stories, taken through our own lenses.  Stories we've read, stories we've watched or listened to, stories that are told around a campfire at night.

Some of them are true.  Some of them are cautionary tales.  Some of them are damaging and distracting and stop us from living.  And some of them raise us up through personal and societal inspiration, letting us live life more fully.

In 2017, I'm still exploring.  I'm just exploring Story.

I'm not completely sure how that's going to look yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing all the ways that Story manifests itself in my life, and harnessing some of the transformational power of Story for myself.

This guy, Donald Davis, nails it on the head in this talk.


Bring on 2017.  I'm stoking the campfire.



*For the record, that screen was totally damaged because one of my friends tried to light a wasp on fire with a lighter and some hairspray once.  Popping it out as a means of escape was totally just me trying to get it fixed before my parents noticed.

Also, there may have been boys out there in the night.  I admit nothing.

1 comment:

  1. You are truly an amazing thinker, spilling over with pure fun! I love it when I see your intellect collide with your imagination and these great stories emerge! You inspire me...always!

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