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Archive Number 3558 | ||
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Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 10:43:07 -0500
MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Thank you, Marcia, and healing storyteller friends, for introducing the topic: "negative" stories. I come from a background as a professor in empirical social science research methodology and theory development. When I retired from the College of Social and Behavioral Science at Ohio State University in 1997 a series of unexpected events (beginning in 1992) drew me into a new direction of story writing and public speaking and storytelling. I shall assume by "negative" we refer to true stories of human suffering, as contrasted with humorous or entertaining stories. I tell stories of a strange, troubled boy under the pretense of what I call the Bobby Dick Diary-- a "Diary" I claim to have found at a flea market. When I tell negative stories to children in crisis, children who have lost a parent, suffered abuse, or children in Big Brothers, Big Sisters, orphans or otherwise hurt children, the children respond. They almost immediately connect with these "negative" stories, then open themselves to share their own stories. I listen. I should add that these children seem to see me as a survivor who shares his true stories with them. When I tell stories at a more public location, such as a festival or a public library or to high school teens or a campground I scan the "Bobby Dick Diary" for humorous stories. As I explore storytelling in this chapter of my life I increasingly discover humor in the so-called "negative" stories. Robert Monaghan ------------------------------- To Unsubscribe from Healingstory send the message: unsubscribe healingstory to: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu ------------------------------- | ||