If you’ve followed my blog, you know that I consider stories central to uncovering meaning in our lives. I ran across this post about the science of storytelling which is fascinating.
Leo Widrich, the co- founder of Buffer, shares insights of marketing using stories.
Storytelling is powerful communication. Here’s more of Widrich’s article, The Science of Storytelling.
And for some, the second leads to the first.
What is literature?
The Bible uses skillful technique and beauty to portray and interpret the human experience in the light of God’s nature.
cain & abel (Photo credit: gabork)
Let’s take a look at the story of Cain and Abel. (I’m not really stuck in Genesis but the Genesis stories are rich and deserve analysis.)
The story of Cain and Abel is a classic tale of sibling rivalry. We meet the perfect child contrasted with the problem child and we encounter violence within a family. We see the consequences of a grudge nursed to bitterness. We learn the consequences of giving in to evil impulses. None of these are lightweight topics and each topic studies human experience.
Cain, jealous that God has approved of Abel’s sacrifice while rejecting his, lures Abel into a field and kills him. God had urged Cain to resist the lurking evil and it was God who called Cain to accountability: “Where is your brother Abel?”
In God’s confrontation, we learn that evil actions have consequences. Obviously, Abel was dead. That alone was a severe consequence for submitting to bitterness and jealousy. But not the only consequence.
We read Cain’s trial. God confronts, listens to Cain’s defense (“Am I my brother’s keeper?”) and sentences Cain.
All the elements of a classic criminal story are here. We meet the criminal, learn his motive, witness the crime, and then watch the arrest, trial and sentencing.
The story contains a beginning, middle and end. We discover artistic story crafting and word choices.
For example, when God speaks to Cain before the murder, he describes the danger in a powerful imagery: “Sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you but you must rule over it.”
Earlier, God had given Cain the way out by explaining that “if you do what is right, will you not be accepted?”
There, in a nutshell, was the problem and solution. Cain’s sacrifice was not accepted because he had not done what was right. That was correctable but Cain not only refused to do what was right, he chose to do what was wrong.
In a gripping story that probed deeply into the human experience, a powerful lesson was taught. Skillful technique brought vivid meaning.
We’ll continue next Friday.
Let me tell you a story about that.
siri (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)
One evening, I was busy and my hands were full. But I had my iPhone and my personal assistant, Siri, right? So when the text came to my phone, I instructed Siri to read it to me. She did, informing me that my husband was letting me know that we were out of milk at home.
“Would you like to repeat or reply?” Siri is so efficient.
“Reply,” I said. I dictated the reply: “I forgot about milk. Sorry.”
Then I got the bright idea to let my children know. My daughter was driving home with my teenage son so I instructed Siri to send him a message: “Dad just told me there is no milk—” Then Siri interrupted me with a beep and asked if I wanted to send the message. “No,” I instructed.
But I didn’t read the screen. I just repeated the whole message: “Dad just told me there is no milk. Do you want to go back and get some?”
After a longer pause than my son usually needs when it comes to text messages, I got his response: “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
When we got together to compare messages, I discovered that I had first replied to my husband like this: “I forgot about mountain sorry.”
And the text to my son read, “Dad just told me there is no mouth. Dad just told me there was no mountain. You want to go back and get baby?”
Siri may be very efficient but apparently I can’t trust her around milk.
When both of my sons were boys, I sometimes intercepted their beeline for the supper table to ask if they had washed their hands.
Both of them would stare at their hands. “They look clean to me.”
Then they trudged to the sink for a nice scrub. They had spent the afternoon digging in the dirt.
But there may be vindication. There’s a whole batch of research going on extolling the benefits of dirt.
The scientists couch their comments in politically-correct verbiage. We’ve been taught for years that you can’t get too clean.
But now there’s research to suggest that exposure to dirt triggers serotonin, the chemical that helps combat depression. Mice exposed to dirt are better able to cope and seem calmer.
Actually, I’ve noticed the same thing with children. My kids dug holes in the sand, ran cars over dirt tracks, wore streaks of mud on their foreheads and cheeks (apparently not their hands, though, if you can believe the boys.) They were pretty happy playing in the dirt and may still dig in the dirt for all I know.
If life is heavy right now, go find a sturdy spoon and dig a hole somewhere. You might be surprised how good you feel afterward.
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