WK 7 Response - Work of Story
Chapter one Work of Story explained the history, biology, and psychology of story. Not just the stories we consume but the stories we tell ourselves, Joe Lambert writes about our operational myths. “We should know our myths about ourselves, and that we tell about the world we inhabit, and if they do not suit our healthy existence, we should seek to change and/or reframe them.”
The work of The Center for Digital Storytelling as described in this chapter is to support the continued construction of a healthy, individual identity.
Anything can, and in today’s digital environment is, reframed. We are presented with different perspectives, discourses, and re-imagining opportunities from the prolific narratives we consume via all kinds of digital media. There remains a resulting possibility of our shifting identity. Through story we can juxtapose our existence and identity upon the fertile landscape of narrative told through, video, audio, and discourse. Through technology we can transmit our stories to nearly every nook and cranny in the world.
The author writes about how we learn. We learn by repetition, nothing really new there. However, newer research has shown the affective relationship to sensory information. Information connected to our emotions builds a stronger neural pathway. Strong neural pathways cause stronger emotional coding. This description of why story burns a memory into our neurons explains again, why storytelling is such a powerful vehicle. We can use story to inform, drive learning, spark action, or bind or disconnect a myth to or from a culture. The catalyst of story is as varied as human imagination.
Finally from this article it reinforced the many textures of human existence and why through story we can examine the landscape. We are not one thing. A single or even multiple assessments, styles, strengths, age, race, gender, sexual identity or political affiliation cannot define the whole person. We are as complex as the brain and as diverse as the universe. Story can help us stretch our beings even further by creating new relational and neural pathways.
