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k 10 A GOOD STORY IS LIKe GOOD FOOD: It is anticipated, savored, and nourishing. The same happens when the appetite is whetted by the storyteller. If she were Saami, she might begin with Ennen vanhaan,43 or if she were a Gamilaraay Aborigine, it would be Yilambu,44 both of which mean In former times or In days of old. Such invocations, which introduce stories all around the world, immediately take us to another place and time, freeing us of our present reality. STORY AS MeTAPHOR Like food, the experience of a story is different for each listener. This is because stories are metaphorical, which means that characters, images, and situations are representative of something outside the story. The metaphor of a relevant story will draw a parallel to the listener’s life. For example, a butterfly emerging from a cocoon could be a metaphor for personal transformation, or a person crossing a mountain range might be a metaphor for one’s life journey. Metaphor works by creating distance between us and our experiences, allowing us to see ourselves with perspective. Metaphors give a story universality and immortality because they permit many different types of people who live in different times to relate to the story. Metaphor is the real voice of the story and the source of its power. Within a metaphor are symbols: things simple and familiar used to represent things larger or more dimensional. For example, a raised hand could symbolize a greeting, and a flower might be a symbol of beauty. Symbols are both familiar doorways to help us enter the story and quick, clear, direct means of expression. They help both storyteller and listener keep focused on the spirit rather than the details of the story. Chapter Three The Body of a Story k 11 The Sasquatch (also known as Bigfoot, Yeti, Abominable Snowman), Loch Ness monster, and outer space alien all play the role of the Dragon, Thunderbird, and Windigo in older stories. The Loch Ness monster and the space alien are the symbols, the quest for the monster and the UFO abduction are the metaphors. STARvING FOR ONeNeSS We need to approach these stories metaphorically in order to gain their guidance; however, in this pragmatic age we are so starved for communion with something greater and wiser than ourselves that many of us want to believe that these stories are real. To this end, we work hard to authenticate them with hard evidence: video footage of Bigfoot, sonar soundings of the Loch Ness monster, photos of UFOs, and firsthand accounts of alien encounters. In doing so, we steal the magic of our contemporary stories. We destroy the potential for the communion we are seeking by taking the metaphorical mystery—the doorway to communion—and making it part of our everyday, pragmatic reality. We take the story away from the storyteller and give it to the scientist and the journalist. We go to the opposite extreme with our traditional stories. We feel estranged from them because we no longer view ourselves as being capable of enacting them. We are not in touch with our personal power, as are the characters in the legends, so we feel estranged from them. We ask ourselves how we could possibly assume such noble roles and achieve such grandiose feats. Our response is to sanctify the legends by embracing them as relics of a revered, enchanted past. Rather than become the story, we hold it up as an example to inspire us. This transforms it from a companion voice guiding our walking to an elevated holy scripture from which we feel separate. Awestruck, we bow and submit. We have gone from integration to subservience: rather than walk the guided path, we take a seat on the coach of compliance. This idolizing of our legends starts when we are young. We are given Santa Claus and fairies (such as the Tooth Fairy, who leaves a small gift in exchange for a shed baby tooth) as belief systems rather than stories. When these early belief systems die, they leave hurting vacuums that yearn to be filled. Enter alien messengers, godlike religious figures, esoteric mysticism, and so on. The yearning turns out to be insatiable. Some of us go from one belief system to another, and then another, leaving the exposed or worn out ones behind like old clothes. When we can no longer keep them elevated, we desanctify them, rationalizing them away as the preoccupations of the young and na...

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