Storytelling-Imagination Shapes Who We Are As Humans

We as a human race have been telling stories since the beginning of time. Small, hidden caverns still hold pictures from the first known storytellers, thousands of years ago. We love sharing and hearing stories; it is one of the things that makes us human. Before humans ever learned to read and write, we are told stories that can capture family or cultural values, glorify a historical event or capture the imagination.

Take the story of Cinderella. There are a lot of different countries that have that story within their culture. Did you know that there is an Egyptian story of Cinderella? She marries the pharaoh. I have read the Dutch, Belgium, Turkish, and Chinese versions of the Cinderella story. Those are just some examples. The most ancient retelling of the tale of Cinderella dates back to around 430 BC; an ancient Greek legend first mentioned by a historian named Herodotos in his Book II of The Histories. I found it fascinating that through thousands of years, hundreds of cultures, and countless retellings, the Cinderella story has survived.

Music, film, painting; they are all different forms of storytelling. Thousands of years, countless cultures; all share a form of a narrative. Imagine going to a party? Who is the most popular? It varies by crowd, of course, but I can guarantee that there is always at least one storyteller in the venue and that he or she is worth paying attention too. When you tell a story, you make a connection.

My dad is one of those storytellers. He likes to exaggerate a good amount, but he always seems to have an audience that genuinely enjoys listening to his tales. He used to tell my siblings and I stories before bedtime. We were four, young, rowdy and mischievous kids. Getting us to sit quietly and listen was no easy feat, especially for my family. At least one of us had ADHD, one of us could have outwitted Hermes himself, and one of us had the attention span of a goldfish.

How did four kids somehow manage to sit still and listen, enraptured, to hear my dad tell stories? What is it about storytelling that capture us as humans? There are several possibilities.

Stories are universal. Tom Corson-Knowles from TCK publishing.com, states that "Stories are central to human cognition and communication. We engage with others through stories, and storytelling is a lot more than just a recitation of facts and events. As human beings, we are automatically drawn to stories because we see ourselves reflected in them. We inevitably interpret the meaning in stories and understand ourselves better."

A team led by Kate McLean at Western Washington University described it in the recent paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, “The stories we tell about ourselves reveal ourselves, construct ourselves, and sustain ourselves through time”.

By narrating and sharing stories, we give meaning to our lives. There is a great power in storytelling. When we create and share tales, we shape our lives for the better. We learn and grow as a community and a culture. It is our art of being human. We are impacting and making a difference. It is amazing to me just how much storytelling surrounds us; past, present and future.

What will you learn next? Where will your imagination take you? When you hear a new story? Think of the wonderous adventures you have already seen and hear. What sort of stories did you grow up hearing and how did it shape you?

One thing is for certain, there will be stories worth telling and stories worth experiencing. It is part of life. More specifically, it is part of being human.

Sources: https://www.tckpublishing.com/stories-matter/, https://towardsdatascience.com/storytelling-with-data-40708c129f37, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190523-the-way-you-tell-your-life-story-shapes-your-personality, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30998044/, https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2016/11/16/the-ancient-greek-cinderella/