Story Telling is Important

Tonight I'm off to Anecdotal Evidence: a Storytelling Series, here in Vancouver, Washington (you should come). There are six people sharing true stories around the theme: "It seemed like a good idea at the time." There are no notes or slides, just people telling stories to people. You may have heard "The Moth" on podcast or public radio, which is the same idea (just in New York City).

Storytelling is a hugely important skill in our culture. For the majority of the history of humanity it was the primary form of communication for most of the people in the world. It's only very recently that we've become literate and moved away from the spoken story, but we still long for it. We want to be caught up in the emotion and adventure of the words. We want to imagine the scene and to be caught up in the drama.

We won't keep this skill unless we practice it. I'm going tonight to watch some masters and some beginners practice the craft of storytelling. How do you practice storytelling?

Virtual Choir

This stretches the limits of what we thought was possible with the internet. The composer/conductor Eric Whitacer said: "The intimacy of all the faces, the sound of the singing, the obvious poetic symbolism about our shared humanity and our need to connect; all of it completely overwhelmed me."

I too am overwhelmed. This is just a phenomenal accomplishment. Maybe community doesn't have to be face-to face. Maybe this whole internet thing can actually connect us.

So you know the song is only the first 4:45 of the video, the last section is credits.

You can read more about the project here.