HOW-OF-WHY

© 2005 Michael John Moynihan

If I ask what is the most unique characteristic of the human species, what would you say? Homo sapiens, the tool-making animal, the social animal, the language using, communicating animal. Other creatures do some of each of those things. But there is one thing that no other species does: tell stories.

The human ability to tell stories is fundamental because we live by storytelling. We invent our world with the stories we hear and tell. Our reactions are seldom in response to the immediate physical environment. We experience what we call reality as we exchange stories. Our reality has been acquired not through direct experience but through stories we hear and tell. Each story makes us adjust our sense of who we are.

Stories emerge from and then animate our imaginations. The only tool humans have to figure out how things work, what they are, and what to do about them, are stories

Basically, there are three kinds of stories.

The first kind of story illuminates one of the most important parts of life: invisible relationships. It reveals how we relate to each other – the hidden dynamics of the relationships in which we live. These stories tell the truth about how things really work, because how things really work is not apparent, is not visible. "Make-believe" is the construction of a story that allows us to see what is usually covert. These kinds of stories – what we call fiction, myth or fairy tales – are often dismissed as unreal or fantasy when they are in fact the unique and indispensable ways of clarifying not that which is, but that which shows how things work.

The second kind of story is that of factual explanation and illustration. Histories, documentaries, the news – these are all examples of the second sort of story. By themselves, these stories are meaningless. A news story – a story of fact – makes sense only as it is fitted into a framework that is erected by the first kind of story of how life really works. Once we understand that we can use the facts, we can fit in the facts to confirm our fantasy we call reality and say, "Yes, that is real." If it doesn't fit, we discard it, or we say it is biased or false.

The third story is a story of value and choice. It asks, "Well, if this is how things work and if this is how things are, then what should we do about them?" These are the lectures, the instructions that present a little tale about a style of life that says, "This is how it works, how it is, and this is a desirable outcome for us (or an undesirable outcome that you want to avoid), and therefore you should choose this particular direction.

These three kinds of stories are interwoven together to create what we call the “culture”. A system of stories that regulates human relationships, into which we are born and which we absorb and acquire as we grow and become socialized into our place in a social structure. They have been woven together in very different ways at different times in history. More on that next time.