I
t’s all so overwhelming and it seems everyone is tired, discouraged, maybe angry or cynical or depressed, maybe confused or disheartened…just weary.
Each day during this April A-Z Blogging Challenge I’ll offer a short musing on an aspect or two of the many ways the ancient-yet-very-contemporary experience of storytelling – both listening and telling – is an enjoyable, fortifying and heart-lifting practice, for anyone!
N – Storytelling is NEW
Well, in some ways, yes; in some ways, really not!…
“Everything old is NEW again” they say.
Oral storytelling has been practiced by people since the dawn of humanity, preceding the creation and widespread use of writing by thousands of years. Some argue it is humanity’s oldest art form.
And yet, in dominant US culture anyway, to so many people it seems brand NEW!
Or, somehow both…
“Storytelling is old-fashioned.” (OLD thing!)
“It’s just for kids – was part of my childhood, maybe.”
“They used to do it way back when.”
Or,
“I’ve never heard of it before!” (NEW thing!)
“You’re a storyteller? – What does that mean, what do you do?”
“A story circle? People just telling stories? I’ve never done that!!”
To…
“Everyone’s a storyteller!” (- and you can’t encounter business advice or marketing or organizational communication without encountering the word “storytelling” thrown around anymore – it’s the NEW thing…)
And have you heard (or heard of) “The Moth Radio Hour” on NPR? It debuted in 2009, and has made “Moth-style” storytelling (true personal stories told on stage, with a time limit) an increasingly popular NEW way to do storytelling in the US. Have you heard of story slams? – true, personal stories with a time limit, and usually a highly-subjectively-judged competition, sometimes with prizes; also NEW-ly and increasingly popular.
Personally, I have some experience with (both telling and listening) with story slams and personal-narrative-telling, but I’m primarily drawn to traditional tales (folktales, fairytales, legends, myths, etc.), and over my 34-year career have sought out ways and places to introduce people for whom storytelling is a NEW thing to such stories, in many different contexts.
For example, I recently finished a 4-month series at a local UCC church where I contributed the telling of folktales in the Sunday services that connected to the day’s selected scripture reading/emphasis – a NEW thing for many in that congregation, for sure! (The pastors/preachers then drew from the tale I told as well as the scripture reading for the day’s sermon and service theme.)
And, simplest of all, perhaps: In “my world” of people-who-know-and-love-storytelling, we have such things as story circles – getting together regularly (say, monthly) to simply swap stories, for the fun of it.
SO great, so heart-lifting!
– Is that a NEW idea for you? Ever done it before? It might be just the NEW thing for you to try in these disheartening times!
Thanks for reading – Pam
P.S. – And it’s true: every time a story is told – no matter how many times the teller may have told it before, nor how many times the listeners have heard it before – it is a NEW experience, arguably a NEW story at times! (Hmmm, now I’m thinking this is what I should have concentrated on in today’s post on “Storytelling is NEW“ – oh well, too late now!)
Top photo by Kristopher Roller on Unsplash. Mushroom photo by Anastasia Zhenina on Unsplash. Pam Faro singing with dragon in Yorkshire woods photo by Elli Luja.
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