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When I was a little girl, I fell in love with two things: The movies and fairy tales. In other words…stories. My fascination with stories led me to make up my own in my head. I had a sixth grade teacher who would let me tell my stories to our sixth grade class sometimes when he had to leave the room for some reason or another. Later, in junior high, I wrote stories down and somehow convinced my friends, Judy, Charlene, and Bea, to act them out with me. In high school, I recognized the kick I got out of writing, so I went to college with the intention of becoming a journalist—trying to kill two birds with one stone: Write and make a living at it. But that didn’t work out because I hated the core/prerequisite journalism class at Indiana University.
What was happening, at the same time that I was getting turned off by journalism, was that I had fallen hard for my literature classes where I'd been introduced to all those the Greek myths, The Odyssey, in particular, the short stories like “The Lottery,” Chaucer’s tales, the unforgettable character, Lady Macbeth, and all that just knocked me over. The story thing, again. So since I hated journalism and loved literature, I decided to change my major to English which really meant literature. And I did a double minor in Creative Writing and Comparative Literature.
Stories. What good are they, you ask?
Well, among other things, they tell us and others about our history (our past), our sociology (our connections with the group), our geography (our physical points of origin), our cultural anthropology (our art, clothing, music, dance, food, rituals, and literature), our philosophy/cosmology/religion (our view of life, ourselves, the earth, and that which is greater than us), our psychology (that which drives us/motivates us).
Stories tell us who we are, where we came from, what we desire, where we’re going, and what we think of ourselves. In our stories, we reveal our identity. We find our identity. We confirm our identity. We confirm our common humanity.
In stories, we connect to each other. At a very basic level. No matter what the race, nation, era, culture, or geographic location that they hail from, stories bring us together around the campfire. Stories are a life line. A link. A bridge to the past, present, and future. Stories give us hope. Give us courage. Bring us through the bad. Help us celebrate the good.
The kind of stories we tell ourselves tell us and others how much we love ourselves, hate ourselves, or are indifferent to ourselves and all living things that inhabit this earth (the peoples of the air, the peoples of the water, the peoples of the earth as some Native Americans put it). Stories teach, reinforce, pass down, to each generation, what we love and prize. What we value.
They are our truest and finest legacy… the most important things we give each other, the most precious things we pass on to succeeding generations.
I love stories. I love to tell them, watch them, listen to them, see them acted out. And write them.
Are you a storyteller? I am.
5 comments:
Stories gives us Identity
The blog I identified the most with was Storyteller 1: Stories. I identify with this blog because Ms. Lennon and I have a similar experience and the same beliefs about stories. As college students we believe that our professor’s never change their minds about their majors and that they have different beliefs than we have. However, I believe this to be a misconception.
At the beginning of the blog Ms. Lennon states that as a child she loved fairy tales, movies and narrated her stories. Ms. Lennon’s major at first was journalism, however; she changed it to English with a minor in Writing Composition. I had a similar experience as did Ms. Lennon because I changed my major. No, I was not interested in Journalism or English. The fact is that my vocabulary and grammar are horrible. My dream was to become a nurse; I wanted to make people feel better and supported. However, after taking biology courses in high school I became disappointed. In other words, I hated biology! My Psychology courses become my favorite classes. I changed my major to psychology because I concluded that sometimes people just need to speak to someone who can make them feel better and supported
Speaking of support, some of us feel better my hearing stories. Stories may be passed down from generation to generation. As Ms. Lennon mentions in her blog stories, they tell us our pasts, our present and our future, our traditions, our identity and connect everyone regardless of our race and culture. I honestly, agree with Ms. Lennon because I have experience with storytelling regarding my friend. A few weeks ago my friend Vanessa’s family began to tell stories about their family. In one story, someone mentioned that Vanessa’s great-great-grandmother had indigenous blood and for this reason many people in El Salvador disagreed with Vanessa’s great-great-great grandparent’s marriage. Nobody knows all the facts; however, Vanessa is intrigued and determined to reconnect with a part of her identity.
I agree with Ms. Lennon stories are important. From stories people can learn from where they have come, what their traditions are and what their identity is. Right now I am not a storyteller, however I am investigating my heritage. We all have family stories and when I learn them I am plan to tell my children.
I too enjoyed fairy tales when I was girl. Infact I still do becuase it takes me away form reality. I mostly like to listen and watch them becuase I can imagine them in my head as it if were actaully playing.
Stories help our mind go above and beyond what is in the world. I relate to this because as a little girl, I would always love to hear stories. I was always so gullible when it came to stories, even if they were made up. Although I don’t tell stories, I love hearing other people’s stories and what they tell me. Everyone’s story is different, but it gives you a more open mind because you learn to see things from different perspectives. The stories that we hear tell so much about the world, and through stories everyone learns and tells the human race about what occurred and what is occurring.
I like this blog "Storytellers I: Stories", because i like stories as well. I like listening to stories more than writing them. When I was in elementary I loved story time. As i got older i read fairytales to my little cousins. The blog was was well written and very desriptive. It made me feel as if I was there and helped me relate to it.
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