Learning from stories

Of course after I questioned the idea of learning from stories, the way people learn facts during a research project, I see that Molly talked about learning.

And exchanging of

human experiences,

And how it made us

understand something

that we didn’t see before. That’s

wow! Can I share my enlightenment with you?

Can you share yours with me?

Can you share your sadness with me?

Can you share your

joys?

Can you share your hopes,

can you share the most defeating moment of your life

when you were twelve years old?

Oh my God!

You know, Jesus

that’s amazing!

We can do this.  

And I love that,

Understanding and enlightenment. I’ll accept that as the type of learning that goes on at Carapace.

I like,

surprising,

hearing guys talking about

going on adventures in Europe,

and it just totally screws up, you know,

and it’s funny.

I get to go on an adventure without having to

suffer all the consequences.

Or relationships that totally blow up. It’s –

how nice to

be intimately involved and not get hurt!

You know (laughing).

It’s vicarious.

But this is how we learn.

We learn from experience and storytelling allows us to learn from other people’s experiences.

We watch something;

we understand something.

We see the best

do a gymnastics move,

and almost like,

“Oh that’s how it’s done.”

But we learn from the best.

We also learn from the mistakes.

Further elaborating on learning from other people’s experiences.

And we’re meant to do these things.

We’re meant to share with each other.

It’s like a practice run

for the real thing, like

get ready for the crisis.

Here’s what might happen, you know,

but in the meantime,

enjoy it!

When we look in a mirror, we learn something about ourselves. Stories help us learn about ourselves collectively - humanity:

I mean, it’s

so instructive, these stories,

are so

mirror of life and

when I leave,

if I think about it,

Before I go out

in the day,

I might stop and look in a mirror and say

“how’s your face look?

What do you look like today?”

And I guess, sometimes,

“What are you wearing,

is your collar turned out right?” But,

to go to these storytellings,

it’s also,

“what do we look like?

Where are we now?

What state of mind are we in?

What stage of life are we in?

What can we do?

What’s important?”

And it’s sort of like looking in the mirror.

I mean we’re not seeing ourselves,

we’re seeing other people, but

we’re all in it together. (MRW)

We understand better because stories allow us to temporarily be another person:

And we affect each other.

And we are each other.

And when we tell stories, we become each other.

We share this story.

For a while I’m Christopher;

for a while I’m Benji;

for a while I’m Sarah;

for a while, I’m

anybody that tells a story.

And I’m in their shoes

for that short time,

and I love it, you know.

I mean it’s a good way to try to understand things.