National Storytelling Week Appeal - Parables needed

National Storytelling Week Appeal - Parables needed.

10th Annual National Storytelling Week
30th January – 6th February 2010

A decade in celebration of storytelling! Once a upon a time an idea was proposed for a week to highlight the art of storytelling - not just for the young but for all ages who share the creations of thought and the creativity of imagination.  The storytelling week has grown fast; in 2001 (the first year), 200 events were held around the country. In 2009 National Storytelling Week reached 16,000 people of various ages with storytelling events and performances in schools, arts centres, libraries, theatres, museums, pubs, bookshops, storytelling clubs, retirement homes and prisons!

This year promises to be bigger than ever as storytelling in this country now has its first laureate, the wonderful Taffy Thomas. Schools, of course, are becoming more and more aware of the week and want storytellers to come in to help them celebrate.  Could you be one? And what can the Christian youth worker offer that is unique, particularly let’s say in an assembly? 

First lets remember what storytelling is for. In its sharing between teller and listener it gives and receives, it empowers, it creates and feeds the imagination. Stories contain meaning but cannot be reduced to one meaning alone. Our master storyteller understood this very well so he told parables and hardly ever explained them. Why not try the same?

There are two possible approaches. One is to take a real-life story or incident and tell it, without trying to interpret. I remember once, in a pupil referral unit, telling a small story about being slammed in the leg by the shopping basket of a hassled mum. I had apologised (in a very British way) without thinking and had then been subject to a tirade of verbal abuse for being in the wrong place. I told this story because it bothered me, but I had no interpretation or meaning attached to it. The story opened up a huge discussion on fairness which led into what it means to have empathy for others. This very deep discussion was led by a group of apparently very dysfunctional teenagers.

The second approach is to take one of Jesus’ parables and to tell it, not read it. But please avoid The Good Samaritan, this is the one parable most schools do to death. Find a parable which appeals to you, don’t think too hard about meaning, rather look for a parable which resonates in your spirit. (At the moment with the horrific situation in Haiti, the parable which resonates for me is that of the wise and foolish builders in Matthew 7.)

Walk with this parable – dedicate time on each day in the next week to reading the parable you have chosen so that you get it in your head. I always find it helpful to think of a story I am learning as a series of pictures like a comic strip rather than words. Then tell the parable to as many different people as you can and in many different contexts; to your family at home, to a friend over the phone, to your fellow workers in a break. Tell it at least once each day. You will find the words which work for you and the images you like. You will also develop different possible ways of telling it so that when it comes to telling the parable in a school you will be fully immersed in it. Then, of course, ring some schools and tell them you have got a story to tell for National Storytelling Week.

Go for it, you will have a ball!

Neil Ruckman (Credo Storytellers)