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Archive Number 986 | ||
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Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2002 08:47:35 -0500
If you like this activity, you will love Bob Barton's book, Story Works: Using Shared Stories in the Classroom. He has some marvelous activities that engage students and invite them to listen to each other, respond to the story, and build on the collective responses before retelling the story. He asks questions of the text, like: Who are these characters? What do they want? What obstacles do they encoounter? What is this story about? It is in the collaborative reteling that the emotional truth comes out. Leah ----- Leah Ruekberg Restorying Lives leah70@msn.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joan Stockbridge" To: Sent: Monday, January 07, 2002 1:56 PM Subject: Re: Story and Transformation > Dear Cristy and all, > > Re the transformative power of story. Transformation and story are two words > that I use frequently in the same sentence. I am glad that your question > Cristy has given me a chance to think a little more deeply about the > connection. Here are some examples of transformation that I have witnessed > as a result of story: > > In a classroom after I had told a story, a third grade boy came up to me > and said, 'I always have stomachaches at school, every day. But on the days > you tell a story my stomach ache goes away." I had visited his classroom > three or four times over the course of the year, and the day he came up to > me was the day of my last visit. Some sort of transformation had occurred > for that boy. Some times I think that for people under a great deal of > stress--women in shelters, or this little anxious boy, or the children at > the Crisis Nursery-- story on a very simple level provides respite and > relief, a break from pre-occupation. They forget their anxieties and > difficulties and are simply given a momentary release, like a warm and > soothing bath. > > On another level, I think stories can lead to transformation because they > enable listeners to glimpse a picture of an inner challenge (rage, fear, > dependence etc) and also to see an imaginative path towards resolving that > problem. For example, when I told the women in a shelter the story of the > Tiger's Whiskers (a Korean story dealing with rage and how to overcome it; > the version I first read is in Pinlola EstesWomen Who Run With the Wolves) a > woman said something along the lines of "My husband is like that soldier. I > never knew what he was going to do. We'd get into it pretty good sometimes. > Maybe I could try backing off a little and seeing what kinds of things could > really help him--feed him you might say." > > A whole further level of transformation can happen if listeners can hear the > story and take it in feeling that they are every part of that story; i.e. > that they are not only the wife who learned to feed the tiger but also the > enraged and wounded soldier home from war. For me this is a very tricky part > of telling stories in a healing setting, knowing how far to go with the > conversation and activities after the story. Usually my experience has been > that listeners can pretty readily say what parts of the story they liked, > and what meant the most to them, and give some idea of why those images > moved them; however, to get to the level of seeing themselves in all parts > of the story (which is where the most powerful transformations can occur, I > think, and which is definitely part of how I choose stories to tell) seems > to require some pretty explicit handling of the material, which so far I > have been reluctant to do. > > Cristy sent me a great article from the January 96 issue of Storytelling > which has an exercise for a group, where members of the group shout answers > to complete the following statement "I am the.......in the story, and I feel > .........." I haven't tried this exercise yet, but I am eager to do so. I > think it may be a way to help listeners work more deeply with story images, > without violating the story's ability to work within them and without > pushing listeners further than they are safely able to go. > > Essentially,.I think stories heal and transform because they are expressions > of the spiritual essence, power, and meaning which is at the heart of human > nature. ( I am an optimist I know.) I am healed when I tell stories. > Listeners experience healing when they drop their guard and sink into story, > somehow re-connecting with a lucidity and meaning-giving essence which is > restorative. As a storyteller, I hope and believe that stories, by > themselves, are healing. My ongoing question, now that I have found myself > in this wonderful area of applied storytelling, is to what extent I want to > try to crack stories open, making them to some degree explicit. It is a > marvelous dance..letting the story speak and then letting the listeners > respond....hopefully with minimal interference from me. I think non-verbal > reactions to the story might be amongst the most helpful (drawing, > collaging, re-enacting) because they let the story continue to resonate > within the listeners without becoming too conscious and thus drained of some > of their power. After all, if people start working literally with a > story--What!.going up a mountain and plucking a whisker from a tiger!!!! it > can all become somewhat lessened. How to preserve the inner truth and power > of a story, letting it unfold richly within the psyche of the listeners, and > bubble up into consciousness sufficiently to enable listeners to change > behaviours---that is the trick! Sometimes I have seen that that can actually > occur. I'll never forget one woman in a Woman's Empowerment program run by a > shelter in Sacramento. I had told them the Scottish story of the Stolen > child. The group had discussed the story and one woman had said, "Well, what > I got from this was 'Keeping your eyes on what you love gets you past what > you're afraid of." Several weeks later when I returned to the group, a woman > was talking about her struggle to stay sober. She described really wanting > to skip her AA meeting but then said, "Well, I thought about my kids, and I > remembered that story, and I just decided to go." How amazing. > > With warm good wishes to everyone and many hopes for much storytelling in > this New Year. > > Joan Stockbridge > > > To Unsubscribe from Healingstory send the message: unsubscribe healingstory > > > | ||