Why and How

At the National Storytelling Conference in July, one of the keynote speakers talked about how religion and science used to be bound together and now the two lines are split apart. He talked about this in a troubled way, as if it would bring about the end of this world.

Another speaker gave the example of telling a story about how the stars came to be, and then having a young boy from the audience explain to her what the stars "really" are.

Our folktales, religious tales, all our stories, are important. But why? Not because they are "true" in the scientific sense, but for some other reason.

Another essay from Salmon of Doubt that really stuck out to me, was a somewhat impromptu speech Adams gave to a room full of scientists. Adams was an outspoken atheist, but he talked about the importance of religion.

He started out with feng shui. He admitted that it sounds silly to arrange a room so that a dragon can comfortably walk through it, but the room arrangement usually works. It is usually pleasant, has good flow. Things that often can not be said of rooms and buildings that have been carefully designed by professionals. (His assertion. I do not claim knowledge in architecture or interior design.)

Then he talks about an isolated village that planted and harvested rice based on their religious calendar. The outside world came in and told them how to do it "better." This worked. For one season. After that the crop declined until they went back to their religious calendar.

There are things that people know how to do without knowing why that how works. Science is good at why. We want to know why. But we don't know the why for everything. And not knowing the why shouldn't make us lose faith in the how that our stories preserve for us.

Science, up to a point, tells us why things are the way they are. Why the stars are in the sky. Why apples fall to the ground. But religion and stories tell us how to live in this world.

In my search for connections between what is said, how it is said, and what it means, I think it is interesting that stories and science convey different kinds of truths. Stories are often about things that are "not true" according to science, but on another level they are more true.

My parents are both scientists. I have a close relationship with science. I wanted to be an astronaut for a long time, and I somewhat resented Whitman's poem "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." Knowing that we, too, are stardust is poetic! I can exist in both the worlds of story and science. Perhaps if I tug on both strings I can help wind them back together. But I'll need your help.

The Universe in Your Cup

I've started reading A Salmon of Doubt (trying to read stuff from my bookshelves at home), and I haven't even gotten to the stories yet. I'm still in one of the many introductions, learning all kinds of delicious things about Douglas Adams. As much as I love and admire him, I'm going to have to disagree with one of the things he's said.

He didn't have a great deal of success until Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But that was wildly popular and there was demand for more books. Supposedly he complained that when you write your first book you are drawing on, say, 25 years of life experience. But then, you publish another book about a year later, and only have one more year of experience to draw on. Soon you are "running on empty."

As a relatively young storyteller, I have fallen into the trap of thinking that I don't have enough experiences on which to build my stories. But, time after time that has proven to be simply untrue. And it's not just because I'm getting older. I'm finding stories I already have much faster than I am living new ones.

I think the reason for this is the microcosm. Each moment is filled with infinite experiences and stories. I can mine the same exact experience and find something new to tell about it.

For example, I am currently compiling stories from my study abroad trip to Rome. Several years ago, when I started to get a little more "real" about my storytelling, and was specifically hoping to merge my mythology interests with personal stories, I tried to work on a piece about Rome.

The only thing I could come up with was the Milky Way story, which I love and have performed with great success.

In the last couple of years, thanks to prompts from Carapace and Stories on the Square, I have also told stories about my failure to learn Italian and how that impacted my stay in Rome, and an unfortunate incident in Pompeii involving lots of wine.

Add to that some ideas I've been pondering about the Forum, and a few more things that popped into my head while thinking on the newest Carapace theme, Bad Behavior, and that overall Rome trip story is practically telling itself.

See I thought I had this one experience. But really I had so very many experiences during one six week time period. Looking at that same time through different lenses, digging deeper into specific topics, continually gives me more and more material.

The same thing happens with my naughty stories, my band stories, my parenting stories...

I don't think my creative efforts will ever exhaust my supply of life experience. Each and every moment is too rich to become used up.

I am so glad that storytelling has helped me to see that.