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The Healing Powers of the Storyteller
| Article
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10735 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1993 |
3,175 Words |
| Author
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Patricial L. Fry
Patricia L. Fry is a California-based writer who has published
in Entrepreneur, Woman's Day, and Career Focus. |
The art of storytelling is making a comeback in places not normally associated with myths, folklore, legends, and fairy tales. Some of the approximately 350 professional storytellers in America are currently spinning their yarns in such unlikely locales as corporate offices, prisons, and hospitals as well as theaters, libraries, schools, and even colleges across the United States. And the primary purpose of their stories is not always to entertain, but to teach and assist in problem solving at the corporate and personal levels.
For storyteller Jim Cogan of Ojai, California, education and rehabilitation are his main focuses. According to Cogan, hearing a story based on history, a myth, or a fairy tale can unlock areas of thought that direct instruction cannot even touch. Metaphors, for example, provide safe, non-threatening ways for emotionally troubled adults and children to explore and cope with things they can't deal with more openly.
As Cogan explains "The whole idea of the storyteller program at the Lompoc Federal Prison in California for example, was to trigger a coming together of the men so that they could each explore their own personal skills and work on their self-esteem in a safe environment."
Describing his experiences with one group of seven prisoners Cogan says, "I asked them to tell a story as a group in just five sentences. They had read a story called "Who's Boss?" and decided to tell it. One guy gets up and, pretending to be a rooster, he says, 'I'm the one who starts the day, I ought to be the boss.' He was wonderful in his character--totally sincere. Then it was the bull. This guy was a bruiser. He gets up and says, 'I'm the biggest and 'I'm the toughest and you'd better not get in my way. 'I'm the boss.' The third one was a dog. He gets up and says, 'I keep after all you guys and keep you out of trouble.' I could just see in his eyes that that was his role-keeping these guys out of trouble. He was a real soft-spoken, quiet guy. I found out later that he hadn't spoken fifty words in public in a year, and here he was participating. He barks and does the whole dog number.
"And the next guy, the one whose idea this story was, he comes in real cool. Thirty-five years a Hell's Angel--he walks up tattooed from head to toe and he looks at everybody through his big moustache and he says, 'I'm a donkey and I', smarter than all you guys put together so I'm gonna be the boss, 'cause I know how.' And the other guys say, 'Yeah, I guess he's right. He's always right. After all, maybe he should be boss because he's
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