Why Stories?

“Reports convey information. Stories create experience. Reports transfer knowledge. Stories transport the reader, crossing boundaries of time, space, and imagination. The report points us there. The story puts us there.” ~Roy Peter Clark

A Tool: Stories as illustrations to drive a point home are important tools. They make it easier for people to understand the message and are more interesting, so they’re remembered better. They can be used for simple or complex issues and are effective in bringing about behavioral change or in highlighting social and environmental issues too.

As a tool, such illustrations can engage people in a manner that drives belief and goes deep into their minds and hearts. People are more likely to recall points of information or lessons when it is given to them in the form of stories. 

Recall: It is easier for the audience to recall the events and other details in a story. They can draw parallels to the experiences in the story to what they are experiencing, or have experienced themselves.

Relatable: An illustration, in a story form, about individuals or about similar situations and circumstances an audience can relate to has a great impact. If people can identify with the events in the story or the characters – their experiences, values, culture, socioeconomic status, social norms, geographic locations, then the story becomes their own. So the message becomes more powerful and influences their beliefs and future behavior, bringing about the desired changes for the better. So stories are effective in bringing about changes in individuals and in social groups.

Jesus preached through parables. 

Parables: (a usually short fictitious story on a simple, common subject that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle).

Even Jesus used stories to teach spiritual lessons. He simplified profound spiritual truths and wove them into parables or stories that were relatable.

Mathew 13:1-15 (The MSG)

 1-3. At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories.

3-8. “What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up, it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.

9. “Are you listening to this? Really listening?”

WHY TELL STORIES? 

10. The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”

11-15. He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state, they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:

Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing.

Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing.

The people are blockheads!

They stick their fingers in their ears

so they won’t have to listen;

They screw their eyes shut

so they won’t have to look,

so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face

and let me heal them.”

 

Metaphors, Allegory – Putting it together: In the parables, we can see that it is up to the listener to put two and two together and read into the hidden meaning of the story. These illustrations leave space for the readers or listeners to piece the story together.

Think of some moral stories – or a great movie or book you’ve liked, the moral of the story, most times, is not explicitly stated. It is shown through the experiences of the characters, and the scenarios.

Visual Language: The best illustrations paint images in the listeners’ minds. As in this story of Eeyore and Pooh, the narrative creates vivid pictures in the mind and it also makes the situations and characters relatable.

The Compassionate heart

Many of you would have read Winnie the Pooh stories. So here’s one with relatable situations and characters. Pooh is an adorable bear. In this story, however, a side of his nature, that he’s unaware of has been highlighted.

In one story Pooh is walking along a riverbank.

Eeyore, his stuffed donkey friend, suddenly comes floating downstream, on his back, and he appears quite worried about the possibility of drowning.

Pooh sees him, but is obviously unperturbed and calmly asks if Eeyore had fallen into the river.

Trying to appear calm, the miserable donkey answers, “Silly of me, wasn’t it?”

Pooh fails to respond to the pleading in Eeyore’s eyes.

Instead, he admonishes Eeyore saying that he should have been more careful.

Eeyore, though desperately needing action more than advice, politely thanks him for the advice.

Pooh, still persists in talk rather than action. He points out, “I think you are sinking.”

The drowning Eeyore sees this as a hint of help and asks Pooh if he would mind rescuing him.

So, Pooh pulls him out of the river.

Eeyore humbly apologizes for being such a bother.

Pooh, still apparently not shaken by his friend’s predicament, courteously responds, “Don’t be silly…you should have said something sooner.”

Isn’t this situation relatable? Do you see yourself in that story? Do you, at times, react like Pooh did when someone is in need?

Do you start to point out the obvious, “Looks like you are sinking…you should have been more careful!” at a time when your first response should be action- help?  

Do you wait for others to beg you for help?

Is your attitude reflected in this response… 

“So, you’ve got problems? Well, so does everyone else. Suck it up!”

Does that sound like the right attitude to you? Would you like to hear that from a friend when you are in a tough situation and in desperate need of help?

Being in a bad situation like Eeyore is what most would have been in at some time: drowning in debt, worries, anxiety, medical bills, ill-health, loneliness…  And having a friend like Pooh, who points out what’s obvious and gives you advice on what you should have or should not have done, instead of offering help, is a side of Pooh’s behavior that many might relate to, as well.

On the other hand, many would find themselves in Pooh’s reluctance to help until help is asked of him, even though he knows his friend needs his help, wants his help. It holds up a mirror to those who relate to that role in the story. It brings us to realization, introspection, and correction; a change in attitude.

Stories that use narrative techniques turn the printed descriptions into pictures. They create vivid imagery that transforms into “moving pictures” in the minds of the readers.

Stories that are written and narrated well, using visual language, bring the problems/moral points clearly into focus, and it also gives the possible solutions. It pushes the mind to think about whatever they are experiencing and to change that which needs to be changed.

Visual language takes an abstract concept and makes it tangible by creating a train of visuals – picture after picture in the minds of the audience. One of the most impactful uses of this technique has been the way Martin Luther King, Jr created visuals of what ‘Freedom’ would look like in real terms.

He drew a visual of an abstract term and made it tangible: “…One day, right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers…” and “…on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” The visuals allowed people to imagine what a fair, nondiscriminatory world would look like. What freedom would look like for them!

Illustrations of Creativity. Radical Methods.

A pastor was walking along a river one day when he came across some boys who were fishing. But this was no ordinary way of fishing, because to the surprise of the onlooker, they were casting a tire into the water. The result? They were hauling the fish in by the bucketload! As he started walking away the Lord seemed to say to him, “It’s radical methods of fishing that will catch souls.”

This illustration is inspiring. The lesson is quite clear here. One doesn’t always have to stick to one way of doing things. One can be innovative and use what’s available to get the best results. You learn how to see the possibilities in things and in methods of doing things differently.

A truck driver thought that he’d take a short-cut. He came to a bridge. But his truck was slightly higher than the bridge clearance above the road. This caused a traffic jam. With traffic stopped, engineers were called to work out how to remove the jammed truck and minimize further damage to the bridge.

A little girl in the traffic jam wound down her window and simply said:

“Try letting the air out of the tires.”

Well, it worked, and we can see from this simple story an illustration of how a radical solution can help solve a problem.

While we were in school and even later when I started teaching, there would be a “Moral Science” class for primary classes up to grade 8, which used to be the 1st class of the day. In Catholic schools, this would be a Catechism class for the Catholic kids, while the others had Moral Science. All the Moral Science lessons were in story form. There were illustrations on honesty, discipline, bravery, kindness, thoughtfulness, sharing, and caring… about patriotism, loyalty, community building, and there were stories on the negative fallout of doing things that were destructive. It is easier for kids to remember details and lessons when they are presented as a story.

No wonder we had stories, with a moral, when we were kids. I grew up on Aesop’s Fables and other similar stories. Sunday School provided a lot of spiritual lessons through stories, as well.

Illustrations, as examples, are indeed an important tool to help readers or listeners connect the dots. They augment the discipline of research and study. Illustrations help the audience to understand abstract concepts or deep philosophical and spiritual thoughts. If one must get one’s message across in a way that is understood and effective in bringing about a change for the better, it serves to use illustrations and examples in your writings, lectures, sermons, classes for better impact and better understanding.