Storytelling

Storytelling is a wonderful, wonderful art form. Storytelling is at the heart of most of our media...TV shows, movies, music, blogs, etc. The most interesting unique feature of human beings is our need to self-express and get outside of ourselves. Our earliest ancestors made cave paintings. We do not know what story they were trying to tell, but for whatever reason they felt compelled to create something.

I try to think of what the reason could be for this need. Lately, I have been writing obsessively in my journal. Who am I writing to? Why am I writing? I don't especially want anyone to read it. But it seems important to me to get things down, to make them tangible somewhere.

Almost every month, I go to Provo's live storytelling show The Porch (Come! It's so great!), to hear my fellow community members tell stories. The purpose of the porch is for us to realize the different types of stories that can be found in our community. And I love it, and it's fascinating. But why? Why am I interested in other people's experiences?

Maybe it's because all of us only have one life, and though we will all experience many things, there are invariably some things we will miss out on. Furthermore, we can only understand our own lives, so hearing about the lives of others increases our understanding of the world that we live in. I wish I had better answers. I'll keep thinking about it.