Since a young age we've all been taking in stories from a plethora of different sources, in as many ways as you could probably imagine. Some of us may have realized it, similar to a bed-time story before calling it an evening. Some of us may have had no clue, like a grandparent going over their younger years sprinkling little fragments of lectures here or there in hopes you'll make better decisions than they did. Whether we accept it or not, story-telling is an integral part of our lives. It helps us connect to one another and differentiate between who we could have been, who we are, who we want to be and the complete opposite in that instance as well. Similar to how there is this unmatched, underlying power in your words, others around you share that same strength. Most people just don't realize it but, when they do - that's where the real fun begins.
The invigoratingly beautiful side of story-telling is that it can come from a place with little to no relevance to your actual life; The Tall Tale. Completely fabricated to the point where you'll even begin to question where your ideas come from. What you're creating can be as obscene and as astonishing as you want it to be. You're looking to entertain the masses with each word you project, watching their eyebrows raise, mouths widen the more you continue, their ears twitching as if they didn't hear you correctly and the hairs on the back of their neck standing like something magical was about to happen to even them - never mind your characters or cognitively imagined scenes. The audience becomes involved in the tale, invested in the tale and inspired by the tale. That may not have been your goal, but it's where you landed. All of this just to say, at the end of the day, what difference does it make? It really doesn't. Your goal was to invite people into a world they could only imagine themselves in to escape reality for a few moments, minutes, months depending on how long they need to process what they heard, read or even saw if you have the ability to visually show them. Your goal was to project your creativity, boldly. Whether that was to invoke happiness, hope, humility or harmony depends on the creator. At the end of the day, you and the audience have the privilege to return back to earth, in the comfort of your well-known and well-established lives with some insights you can even so much as partially apply in real life scenarios to help enrich your environment. That in most cases, is the silver lining.
The gut-wrenching, ugly side of story-telling is the hard to ignore, stomach curdling, anxiety encompassing truth; The Tell-All. The slap in the face no one really asked for, but keep coming back for a second, third or even fourth round. It may even hurt to hear, hurt to watch but you can't seem to stop yourself from getting another helping, time and time again. The harsh realities of the lives some people have lived seems to bolster more value in the eye of the audience due to the fact that what you already know, may not be enough. What you have already seen, may not be enough. What you consistently feel - day in and day out, may not be enough. So, where do you go to learn? To understand? To invoke growth? Well, down the ever-evolving rabbit hole of a life others have lived. Their ups and downs shed light on triumph and tragedy. Their whirlwind of emotions through the trials and tribulations provide sustenance to relate to even when the most minuscule things are wrong or right in your life. Their battle between constant indecisions and forcefully dedicated actions, teach you when and how even you can find guidance at the forks in your road. At the end of the day here, what difference does it make? All the difference. Your goal here was to enlighten, encourage, entice and enrage those listening into making not only tangible changes in their life from the immediate end of your story, for themselves, but for those they actually care about. There is no returning to your well-known and well-established lives with these stories, no. These stories were meant to cause a storm, to uproot the foundation in which people built their lives upon to protect themselves from the way things are, they way things always were, but certainly not the way they are going to continue. The purpose was to invoke change. From the initial encounter - taking your audience from curiosity to chaos, to eventually cultivation. That in most cases isn't the silver lining at all, it's the black and white difference between what you thought you knew to what you now know, to finally, what you are going to do about it.
Life has and always will revolve around not only us, but those around us. It's what we bring to the table as individuals that make it a whole. There is nothing without the other. I believe that's what makes story-telling so compelling to the world and the people in it. Without it, a true form of education, connection, conflict and resolution is lost. There is beauty in it. There is ugly in it. There is magic in it. It's how we've always connected, it's how we prefer to connect and in the future, no matter what - it will always be how we connect to each other. The platforms may change, the message may be relayed in different form, but one way or another, a story will be told. So, if you were to sit down across from me and ask me to explain what I think the most important thing we can do to connect with others is? I'd tell you that it's "story-telling". It's always going to be story-telling. It's the most important thing we have and can do as a society for one another. It matters.
Sincerely,
Al