Cuéntame un cuento

“*Con esta moneda me voy a comprar un ramo de cielo y un metro de mar, un pico de estrella, un sol de verdad, un kilo de viento, y nada más*.” Maria Elena Walsh
post originally appeared on The Thinking Blog
https://thethinkingcafe.com/the-thinking-blog/tell-me-a-story-spin-me-a-yarn

Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu. - Ha Jin, Waiting

What? Every summer? How could he possibly divorce his wife every summer? Tell me more!

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. - C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Well, now I want to know everything about him.

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. - Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups

Are you in my head Anne Tyler? Did you write a story about me??

“Sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

I want to know what those are, right now, you have captivated me with one simple sentence.

“Here are three useful things to know about naked mole rats: 1. They are a little bit rat, 2. They are a little bit mole, 3. They are all naked.” Mo Willems, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed.

And suddenly I am fascinated by the idea of a naked mole rat, something that I had never heretofore had the slightest interest in learning about. I can almost feel the naked-mole-rattiness sliding under one on my palms. It’s a little bit creepy.

You know that sensation you get when you’re listening to or reading a great story? That magical moment when you forget about everything else around you because you have been sucked in to story land? That’s your brain on stories.

A good story is one of the most valuable things that we can share with one another as human beings. Stories transport us to another time and place, another reality, even allow us to temporarily take on another identity. A great story keeps us riveted to the storyteller because we are literally in her grasp, at least our brains are.

Have you ever experienced your mouth watering when you’re hearing about a delicious meal? Your hands tingling when listening to a description of the feel of velvet or silk? That’s the brain conjuring up deliciousness, sumptuousness, and silkiness based only on the description not the actual taste, smell or touch. When we are listening to or reading a great story, the active parts of our brains are the exact same ones as those that would have been activated had we been there ourselves.Our brain has fit us snugly in to the shoes of the characters brought to life by a skilled raconteur, plopped us in the setting, shoved us in to the action. The story becomes part of our mental landscape.

I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. - Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome(1911)

Of course it was, because when we hear stories from others we shape those in to our own way of thinking and knowing. Each person tells his or her own unique version of the story, every person lives the story as their own. The stories that connect us are flexible, vibrant, alive. It is almost as if we are all listening to the same music, rhythmically synching our brains together, but each dancing to that brain song it in our own distinctive way.

Telling stories gives us the power to get others to feel what we have felt, to understand the thoughts that live in our heads, even to help shape and the thoughts in their heads. By sharing stories we plant the seeds of ideas, convey the ache of emotions, and generate the joy of surprise. By telling our stories and listening to the stories of those who are very different from us, we increase the chances for empathy, the probability of thoughtful communication, and the strength of appreciation for the diversity that makes our planet a colorful patchwork of people and their stories.

Every single one of us is a storyteller. We need diverse stories, tell me yours, I’m listening….