The Power of Stories

OBSERVE people in a busy street, or anywhere else. Through the window of any restaurant, watch the diners. At the corner of the road, do you see people gathered? What are they thinking? What are they talking about?

The number of thoughts — and the kinds of thoughts, their natures, their depths, and their meanings — that go through the minds, of say, only a hundred people, is staggering. Combine these thoughts, through conversations over time, and you obtain a narrative; a story.

Generally, when people are full of food and sex; they seek stories. What do you seek?

Story

A story is verbal (or visual) account of a real or imagined event.

As for universal truths, this is debatable. Some stories have truths — applicability, rather — which are only relevant to a particular cultural setting.

Storytelling

What rings in your mind when you here storytelling?

Someone under a tree, listening to the teller?

Seated round a fire, listening to the storyteller?

Someone reading a book to others?

While young, I told creative stories to my brother, Chrispine. The storytelling would happen mostly during holidays; in the evening, when we did not herd cattle. I hardly remember the stories though. But they occupied our time, entertained us, and helped us bond.

Certainly, stories can be shared verbally; or visually, through images (videos, films); or in written form. These are the traditional forms of telling stories.

Stories are important

Besides the primary benefits of storytelling — entertainment, cultural awareness, knowledge empowerment — stories also:

Reveal to us other worlds unfamiliar with ours, and may promote tolerance, and connection between different cultures.

Incremental innovation, involves improving an idea, a product, a process, or a service in small steps; it means, looking for a better way to present a good or a service; it means looking for telling a different, yet familiar story about the offering.

If then, stories connect us to our past; it therefore means that we are the past for future generations. How we tell stories today, will define future generations. This is a story cycle. When we tell ourselves better stories, in time, we enrich our experiences; and upon these experiences, in turn, more stories can be told; and the cycle continues, and builds. It therefore matters to tell ourselves strong and good stories.

Author of Konad (expected 2019).

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