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Archive Number 2428 | ||
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Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 13:29:16 -0600
----- Original Message ----- From: "Laura Simms" >>The process included my coming to > > recognize the mythic dimensions of my own story as myth, and > > acknowledging the raw emotion within my own more hidden tales, and then > > learning about detachment without suppression. > > It also taught me about my responsibility as a storyteller and that even > > my personal story was no longere just about me when it was heard by > > another. Laura and All, Yes, "acknowledging the raw emotions and learning detachment without suppression." This is what many of us fail to do constantly in this pollyannaish and sanitized world. And in storytelling we often avoid the tragic especially in our own stories. In replacement of embracing the truly tragic we sentimentalize and work for the Hallmark greeting card solutions. We find it hard to acknowledge that sometimes things just don't work out and we have only our tears. As a storyteller I need to be able to tell these tragic stories. When I fear the tragic and the painful I will fill my storytelling with platitudes and magic solutions. I need to tell these painful stories without romanticing suffering for suffering sake and making suffering noble in of itself. I have come to see that it is not the suffering that is noble what is noble is the acknowledgment of the truth even it the truth is of one's fears and doubts. What is noble is embracing the outcome and telling the truth even if in the end in my fear I had succumb to the circumstances and was defeated. If I do this then I have told a living story. I hear this nobility in my work and experiences at a crisis line, in my work in death dying, and even in my previous work in prisons. The stories are often tragic and the stories are often painful and the outcome our not always what I would hope for them or myself. However, they are the stories that are being told. They are the stories that need to be heard and told. The challenge in my storytelling is learning to tell these stories in a way that does not sentimentalize nor glorify the suffering but offers a lived experience that is part of being human. When I accomplish this people are at times disturbed at seeing a world unknown to them, at other times grateful because they see a little of themselves and feel a little less alone, and sometimes they are angry and upset because they believe only happy stories should be told or at least stories that end happily. Again these are just some random thoughts and reflections on my work as a storyteller and my work in health care and social services. Andre ------ http://USFamily.Net/info - Unlimited Internet - From $8.99/mo! ------ | ||