Three Cheers for Good Old Storytelling
When something big happens in my life I find I can’t talk about it until I have cobbled together a new narrative about what happened and have made a start at fitting the new experience into my greater life story. Humans seem to be compelled in this way. We don’t let our experiences wash over us and disappear, instead we mull, we question, we try to learn so we can do better 'next time.' Most importantly, we offer the story of our hard-won wisdom to others. One reason that I think so many people yearn to write fiction is that we are all of us already storytellers. Social interaction between human beings largely consists of telling our stories to each other, from ones as trivial as the trip to the vet to those as profound and painful as caring for an ailing parent. There are happy stories I love telling, and others I don't love telling, but I will share when I think the listener will be responsive. Telling my own stories is energizing and illu...