It was a quiet Tuesday morning in my hometown on the edge of the prairie. The sun had just begun to peek over the tops of the trees. The birds were just beginning their morning serenade. Ahhhhh It was a quiet and serene morning in my little world. I had just sat down for a […]
To The Whispers
April 28, 2023 by Leave a Comment
They come from behind you. Oh, so quietly. They silently sneak up on you. And dance in your imagination. Be quiet They won’t hit you between the eyes. They won’t come screaming in your face, “This is who you are. This is what you must do.” Rather they creep slowly on little feet of silence […]
The Only Story In The World
February 25, 2020 by Leave a Comment
The debate was over what makes up a great story. The crowd filtered into the gym. They took their seats. Wedging themselves into the metal folding chairs that can turn your butt to stone in an instant. A small podium faced them On one side of the podium sat the traditionalists. Joseph Campbell, Keith Browning, […]
The Storyteller’s Promise
December 18, 2019 by Leave a Comment
A Manifesto by Rebecca Solnit. Edited (with apologies to the author) to fit the Art Of It style. Or lack there of. Stories surround us like air. We breathe them in. We breathe them out. The art of being fully conscious in life means seeing the stories and becoming their teller. And not letting them […]
How Movements Spread
December 3, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Once there was a little girl who loved yo-yos. Nancy loved the way they twirled. She loved the tricks they did. She loved the way she could control them with just a flick of her wrist. One Monday morning Another kid brought his yo-yo to school. To him it was just another toy. It was […]
How To Build A Storytelling Culture
September 18, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Natalia is a 15-year-old girl who lives in a small village in Mozambique. It is amazing how much of her life revolves around water. Waiting on water Each morning, after caring for her six brothers and sisters, she walks with pails to a riverbed miles away. When she get there she stands in line, waiting […]
Modern Movements, #MindTheDigits
May 15, 2019 by Leave a Comment
By Sam Stern Sam Stern is CEO of MagnifyGood, a communications consultancy that magnifies the good of social sector programs by improving the value of their communications efforts Creating change After the initial news of Harvey Weinstein’s longtime abusive practices spread across the globe, an innumerable amount of stories began piling up. For almost two months, the […]
Want To Lead A Movement? Start With A Story
April 16, 2019 by 1 Comment
Two children were born on the same day in Uganda. Two children grew up in the same Ugandan village. One boy One of those boys dropped out of school. He never learned to read. He ended up cutting sugarcane. He eventually struggled with alcohol abuse and parented many children out of wedlock. The other boy […]
What A Doughboy Knows That We Don’t
March 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment
It’s the beginning of a new semester. And Bob is at it again. Each semester, Bob shows a video to his international students. It’s this one. Behold the Doughboy effect “Does this make you hungry?” he asks them. They laugh nervously and answer, “No.” “Does this make you think of family or getting together […]
To The Truth Tellers
February 5, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Truth was naked and cold. Destitute. She had been turned away from every door in the village. Her nakedness frightened the people When Parable found her, she was huddled in a corner, shivering, and hungry. Taking pity on her, Parable gathered her up and took her home. There she dressed Truth in story, warmed her, […]
