We All Tell Stories
When we experience the world, even if we are sharing it with others, our practice, participation, and purpose, is our own. Formulated and designed around our observations and understanding of what we feel is real and what we know to be reality. We tell ourselves anecdotes, connect our memories, to steer us into our personal setting, characters and all. We choose who to add to our narrative. We decide who are our arch-enemies and allies. We paint a perfect picture of what we want our landscape to look like and then we fill it with dialogue and interactions.
This dialogue may be different from our
imagined conversation- it may be repartee rather than meaningful exchanges, but
nonetheless, we hear what we want to hear, make judgments based on what we
think we hear, and sometimes we ignore what we hear in order, to shift our
story. Our story is our concept of who we are. Villains do not think they are
villains. Heroes know they are heroes, mostly because others tell them so. But
we know if we are villainous or heroic, at least in our story we do.
The
story of us, is only a version of a complete picture, as we want it to be. If we want to see
our flaws, recognize our need to edit, we can re-write our autobiography-
especially the version no one else is aware of. We keep most of our memoir
private, so taking a chance on the rewrite, recast and re-release, is risk
free. All we need to do is hit the backspace, edit and adapt. But, this takes
awareness and mindfulness. This takes seeing past the façade of what we tell
others and taking a deep look behind the curtain.
We see trouble when it isn't there or we
refuse to recognize its tendrils as they grab hold. Why? Because we are so busy
creating our plot, writing the ending to each chapter of our story, that we do
not allow ourselves to use the backspace. We want to type so fast, add graphics
and plot twists and just keep the flow going that we do not stop to make sure
that our characters are fully formed, that their character traits are
well-developed. We often lose sight of their motivation, of our motivation. We
tell ourselves stories to shape our fictional world and blend it with our
documentary version of our lives. When the documentary becomes boring we shift
to the fictional to make the read more interesting.
Hear Versions of Other's Stories
Life is a library. Shelves full
of horror, comedy, historical and self-help. Others, romance, political
treatises, plays and classic. There are endless genres to choose from. We wake
up in the morning with our own legend, replaying in our heads. Then when we
begin interacting with others, their chronicles, serials and cliffhangers,
merge into our own. Changing our tale. We move about our days listening to
others, interpreting their stories and deciding if their words are fables or
truths. We are only hearing their version of their story, however. Until they
have become characters in ours, they do not have dimension. Life's characters
follow their arc or they make dramatic changes to type. Either way, they are only
as realistic, as we make them and as much as they allow us, to know them.
It is fascinating to listen to
the narratives of others, on the sly. Often when we are not part of their
chapter, we hear more truth. We see the bigger picture. When we are a main cast
member, we fall into the main narrative and then we have difficulty seeing the
subplot. When we are the reader rather than the narrator, we can see other
aspects to the story. We may not be able to change the outcome, but hopefully
we can recognize the motivation and understand the impetus for it. When we
silence our own speech and truly listen to the voices of others, we identify
the gaps in the plot- we make sense of the vague dialogue, meant to distract us
from the theme.
We can never alter the novel of
others, all we can do is add some plot points. Maybe the episode will become a
two parter or a mini-series. Or we will be written off, after a single scene.
But, if we don't try to word-bomb or photo-bomb the story, we won't even get a
walk on role. Listening is key, there are hidden twists and red herrings
everywhere. The more we hear, the more we can decipher between them. In
every story there are lies and deceptions. They may be purposeful plot points
or merely the antagonist’s narrative- but making sure we use them to push our
own story forward is key. Stories merge, alter, and re-write themselves on a
daily basis. We are both audience, reader and lead actor, protagonist.
Alter the Ending's
Every day we look upon a library of stories, some short, some poetic, some purely comedic. We interact with these books, each with a cover either hardback or paperback. Some are more accessible, more copies available, while others are first editions and difficult to find. The more we open, the more narratives we add to our own the more changes our ending, branches to our story emerge. Each chapter we write in our heads, about ourselves, becomes more fleshed out, more meaningful. We must realize that the narratives of others are still in the editing process, as is our own. Each new twist and plot device, creating a new ending.
Characters enter the story, some with good intentions and some not. Some moving the story forward, some reminding us where we were and how far we have come. In our classroom, each story has multiple endings, each student has their own version of their story, while we create our own. There are situations we do not read about, there are expositions, conflicts and resolutions that are kept hidden from us. We may not be able to alter the ending of their story, but we can help shape the current chapter- in this chapter, we are a side character.
We play a role in the plot. We can lead them to a rising action and capstone. We can get them to the summit if we listen to their story. The words their own, the theme positive. If we lay down a setting of excitement and intrigue, we can help them design a landscape for themselves that is on-going, full of curiosity and imagination. We can help them rewrite the chapter from a doldrums day to a happy memory, if we provide them the independence to write their own story. As children we were often placed inside a story not of our own creation. We were told when to sit, when to eat, when to talk. This stifled our creativity. Our stories became biographies, rather than autobiographies.
Letting the Narrative Go
We all have a narrative. A story we tell ourselves.
Many of us stick strictly to the plot, we have created for ourselves, while
other let go of the narrative and edit and rewrite their story frequently. They
recognize the need to stir things up. Some read the ending first, they like to
know where the characters are going. Others read at a slower pace, letting the
characters resonate. Letting the setting become familiar. Letting the dialogue
merge with their own.
If we allow ourselves to truly do this, let the
narrative go, we will have more time to read the cornucopia of titles, on our
shelves. We will be able to make a new landscape from the settings within each
story. Create an inter-changeable backdrop where students take stage, write the
play and act every role in the performance.
This backdrop is our classroom. This backdrop,
flexible and student-painted, can be raised and lowered depending on the scene. This flexibility
creates a community of plot-lines, stories and narratives- this is education. We
can be minor characters or major plot devices- the choice is theirs, all we can
do is be real, be honest and be kind and they will write us into their stories,
as they remember us.
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