Love is a force, formidable like windstorms and waterfalls,
transforming landscapes, shaping stone. We the living are
the result of countless love stories and unnumbered feats
of overcoming… (Naima Penniman, “Concentric Circles”)
When we enjoy a good story, oftentimes we find something of ourselves in it, or wish that we did. I’ve been enchanted with stories for a long time. A well-honed story carries a wealth of information and inspiration. Think of the parable of the Good Samaritan, how that parable has never lost its potency through many centuries. There’s always another detail ready to speak to us, to elicit new insights and meaning.
I was reminded of a story’s effectiveness several weeks ago at an Iowa Storytellers evening. Three women and two men of various ages each had thirty minutes to relate a story from their personal lives focused on the theme of “Voyage.” While each story contained an element of external travel, the real voyage they shared was the inner one they took. Each speaker’s presentation was totally different, each mesmerizing. Because I am “a walker,” I related most with Bopha Mom-Baccam, who described coming to terms with how her parents fled the war in Cambodia. After years of avoiding the effect of this on herself, she vulnerably told of coming home to her truer self by long, daily, solitary walks in nature.
When the program ended and the almost-600 people were leaving, I looked around and thought, “Every person here not only has a story to tell. Each one IS a story, layers and layers of narrative.” Memories came flooding of my 450 mile walk across Spain over twenty years ago. During that time I came to a greatly increased respect for every person. I wrote about this in Walk In a Relaxed Manner: “We struggled not to make negative comments about others who were walking the Camino. Pilgrims are a diverse group. The temptation is to judge what they wear and eat, what they believe and do not believe, and how they speak and act. A good portion of negative judgments are eliminated by remembering each pilgrim brings his or her own personality and history to the Camino. Tom and I developed the practice of thinking about each person “as a story.” A few days later we came across a quote by Meister Eckhart: “Every creature is a book about God.”
The people we meet in public or private are more than a personality embedded in a human body. They are composed of stories influencing how they cope with difficulties, make life-shaping choices and decisions, and develop attitudes and beliefs. When I find myself making negative judgments, it’s easier to cease this when I consider the hopes, fears, failures, successes, and hurts stored within a person. Then, I sense unity rather than division.
We’ll soon gather for holiday events. Imagine what it would be like if our conversations included sharing a story about ourselves that persons there did not know. Imagine the wonder and appreciation for one another deepening and enriching those relationships.
Abundant peace,
Joyce Rupp
