telling the tale

This weekend at the Celtic Festival I was again captivated by storytelling. You can meet a great Irish storyteller at http://www.mairtinmusic.com/. Mairtin de Cogain not only has a fancy accent but there is a charm about him that totally take you out of yourself to a joyous space of worries suspension and relax. Maybe the quiet and calm waters of the Ladybird Lake behind him made half of the work, but it was a very pleasant experience I shared with a full audience.

By the way, about storytelling, I grew up being told stories and tales, raised my children the same way and I am still enchanted by the magic of the interaction with fantasy. Every time one listens to a story, one has the opportunity to transfer personal anxieties, dreams, and inadequacies onto the main character and find oneself liberated, walking the next miles like a feather in the light breeze of a fall day. It’s a shame that our day has forgotten about this centenary tradition. I believe that reviving it can even help us find creative ways to solve today’s problems, and may even solve them just by practicing it.

Let’s observe some of the mechanisms that could take place: TV will be off, family members will find themselves facing each other and actually talking abut their days and eventually about themselves. People will be trained at listening to each other with some degree of attention, they may laugh together, learn how to see humor in their daily happenings, realize that essential human concerns are still the same, they will develop a better imagination that can improve daily life creativity. Family members can grow closer together just by sharing an hour like this. Try it, and prove me wrong!