Truer than True

When I was in the 10th grade, we read Isabelle Allende’s Esperanza Rising.  My English teacher showed the class an interview in which Allende explains that the story is truer than true.  At first, I did not understand this.  I wondered how a story that anyone can make up at any time could be true.

            Then I realized that the whole human existence is a story made of stories. 

            Even extremely dry scientific textbooks will mention the context of the science – the theories that came before this one or how a discovery was discovered.  That is because even science is a story.  Science is one of many stories that humans tell each other. It goes like this: in order to know something, you must prove that it exists. 

            Religions are stories too.  They go like this: worship in this way and you shall find love.

            None are wrong. All are different.

            Why do humans tell stories?

            We tell stories because we are naturally cooperative animals.  We thrive in sharing because it allows each person to do one thing really well instead of having to do everything for themselves.  Then each person trades their skill for the skills of others, each having something everyone needs.  It is why we are experts in all sorts of fields. 

            Cooperation requires communication, which in turn requires expression to understand all the nuances of emotion.  Some stories are made of things we can see, others are not.  When we tell stories, we engage the emotions and imaginations of others that creates a bond.  A shared experience.  It is the sharing of experience that makes it meaningful.

            The ancient people knew that experience was shared with all beings, not just humans.  The plants and the animals, the earth and the stars, the seen and unseen, and DNA itself.  The foundation of life links us all.  To share in that experience is to view it as a story – personal and evolutionary.  New characters, thickening plots, twists, and growth all contribute to a multisensory experience that can only be attempted to describe fully.  So, we tell stories to capture as much of it as we can and to keep learning.

            A concept I learned from the book Women Who Run with the Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes is to view a story as the whole of your mind.  Each character representing an aspect of your personality.  Each event as something emotional you can relate to symbolically or literally.  The culmination of the story resulting in a lesson learned, a new perception, and a changed way of thinking.  There are certain archetypes that are always present in human stories, such as: the mother, the father, the trickster, the misunderstood, and many others.

            Stories are made from the brain, and yet somehow, are also of it.  All brains are true in a way that is personal to each. However, we all share the same core, the same original context, and the fact that we are all different expressions of that.