Storytelling Advice for the End of the World
Ban single-use plastics? Ban single-use stories!
The world we live in is built out of story. When we moved on from the trees and the mountains and the fields and into homes and cities, we built them out of story. Tales of who we are, how we live and love and breed. We left nature behind and wove a new narrative.
Everything is story. Blue is for boys and pink is for girls. Love belongs to two people under God. Work is done Monday to Friday. School is where you learn how to operate in the world and if that system doesn’t work for you, there is something wrong with your brain.
We made it all up.
We had our reasons. Those stories served us at the time. Or, those stories served the people who held the power, and that was that. But the time has come to dismantle the old stories and tell new ones.
It’s happening everywhere. The staunch, binary pillars of gender expression are crumbling. Our concept of how and when and where we work shifts faster every day. New currency and new words crop up, laying pipe for new paradigms. Everything is changing rapidly, and yet it’s not enough. The world still burns.
What does that mean for storytellers?
