Remembering is fundamentally an act of imagination that requires us to tell a story about what happened to us.
As we remember past events, our imagination fills in gaps in our memory to tell a cohesive story. Cohesive storytelling requires imagining an entire world within which the story makes sense. The conceived world need not be real, it just must be consistent. If the world is ill conceived, then the story fails to engage. The act of remembering requires a cohesive world within which that memory makes sense. The memory is reliant upon our perception of the world. If we introduce an outside perspective into a memory it can cause a misconceived reality to fail due to inconsistency. Nostalgia is a form of imagination. A form where our memories exaggerate the story with great fondness Traumatic events are also a form of storytelling--albeit horrible repetitive stories that our mind cannot let go of or attempts to cover up. The act of storytelling can create healing and wholeness of past events because it moves us through the same mental processes of remembering. A compelling story engages our imagination in the same way that remembering does. The catharsis of a well told story can move us through the emotions of past loss and pain. The elation of fictional love can allow us to imagine ourselves in a situation where we are loved for who we are. The long struggle in one direction of fictional friends can inspire us to take on our own adventure with those closest to us. Storytelling is good for not just the soul, but also our heart and mind. May your next story move you towards healing and wholeness.
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Chris WhtieAs a teacher, speaker, writer, problem solver, and storyteller Chris embodies the phrase, “jack of trades, master of none, often times better than master of one.” Archives
July 2020
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