Thresholds

"Thought of the Week" for March 27, 2006

THE GREAT STORY
CAN UNLOCK OUR POTENTIALS

By Great Story, I mean story that enables us to see patterns of connections, as well as symbols and metaphors to help us contain and understand our existence. I mean story that contains a rich mytho-poetic language whose power propels us beyond the personal-particular focus of the local life toward that realm I call the personal-universal. Great Story contains images that are historical, legendary, mythical, ritualistic, and archetypal....For in this time of the democratization of consciousness and psyche, extraordinarily interesting and useful things can happen to those who tap into Great Story....

Consider those teachers who see the child as the pattern of infinite possibility, a crossroad of biology and cosmogony; they work with passionate commitment to call forth the wonder dwelling within that child. And consider the cook who marries available ingredients to the styles of many cultures to create a planetary cuisine at the local cafe. Consider the judge who sees the dynamic relationship between society and the offender, and works to heal the whole. In each of these instances, a larger story has entered, more energy has been released, and new connections have been revealed.

Great Story is powerful and primal, capable of unlocking levels of the deep psyche. Engaging it produces an intense force, which in turn produces a mutation in consciousness. You become who you really are—and you know it. At those times when you are open to a sense of your own deeper story, “coincidences” multiply; suddenly there is energy for even tedious tasks; everything feels haloed with meaning. And you gain opportunities for opening to larger and larger stories, to an awareness that everybody and everything is replete with story. That is the Pattern that Connects.

Jean Houston (1987). The search for the beloved. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam. pp. 92-93.

Comment:

Teaching to the Child's Story

by Reg Harris

Copyright © 2006 by Reg Harris. All rights reserved. Updated October 6, 2007. All rights reserved. Apart from properly cited quotes and short excerpts, no part of this article can be copied or used in any form without written permission from the author. For permission to use, please contact me.

As teachers we must remember that we are all the main characters of the drama of our own lives, the heroes in our own stories. We must remember that the children we teach are in the process of developing their own story, a story that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

One of the greatest gifts we can give our students is the opportunity to explore, define and unfold their stories. One of the most effective ways we can do this is with literature and film. We can encourage personal response and reflection before we require analysis: What does this story mean to me? How does it make me feel? What does it remind me of in my own life? What does it tell me about my own potentials? Once the personal connections are established, analysis will take on a new value, allowing the student to see the greater patterns and connections his or her story has with the stories of all people.

In a sense, the heroic journey is really the pattern of building and rebuilding our own stories. When the story we are no longer matches the story we are living, we are called to change. The risks become clear as we make a commitment at the threshold and enter the process of deconstructing out old story, floating in the abyss as the new story begins to unfold, and then reconstructing a new self story that brings the life we live into harmony with who we are.

So when we think of the Great Story in the context of the heroic journey, our personal narrative moves from being fixed and confining to being "in play" and open to revision. It is this breaking free of the old story and building the new story that forms the shape of the personal journey.