Language is a Form of Domestication- Three Readings

Story Paths

Free Story & Media Consultation

26:28

Squid Game is back—and this time, the knives are out. In the thrilling Season 3 premiere, Player 456 is spiraling and a brutal round of hide-and-seek forces players to kill or be killed. Hosts Phil Yu and Kiera Please break down Gi-hun’s descent into vengeance, Guard 011’s daring betrayal of the Game, and the shocking moment players are forced to choose between murdering their friends… or dying. Then, Carlos Juico and Gavin Ruta from the Jumpers Jump podcast join us to unpack their wild theories for the season. Plus, Phil and Kiera face off in a high-stakes round of “Hot Sweet Potato.” SPOILER ALERT! Make sure you watch Squid Game Season 3 Episode 1 before listening on. Play one last time. IG - @SquidGameNetflix X (f.k.a. Twitter) - @SquidGame Check out more from Phil Yu @angryasianman , Kiera Please @kieraplease and the Jumpers Jump podcast Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts . Squid Game: The Official Podcast is produced by Netflix and The Mash-Up Americans.…

about a year ago 11:41

MP3•Episode home

A fence stands, half-built, half-rotten, full of holes. Birds nest in its holes, vines curl through its cracks. This fence is language, with old myths slipping past the pickets.

Step through. Again, step through. Let your ears grow fur.

Three readings from three random pages of wonderful books.

Comment and Subscribe here

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe

138 episodes

#Arts #Theater #Story Paths

Language is a Form of Domestication- Three Readings

Story Paths

published about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

A fence stands, half-built, half-rotten, full of holes. Birds nest in its holes, vines curl through its cracks. This fence is language, with old myths slipping past the pickets.

Step through. Again, step through. Let your ears grow fur.

Three readings from three random pages of wonderful books.

Free Story & Media Consultation

Comment and Subscribe here

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe

138 episodes

#Arts #Theater #Story Paths

All episodes

1
Rhythms for the Stars 18:14

1 day ago18:14

18:14

Human skin against goat skin. Who leads, who follows? Rhythm is a language, but who speaks it best—the swirling hand or the desert wind? My friend Rasha taught me Egyptian rhythms beneath the stars. We sync, I lose the thread, we laugh. But the stars keep time, and the drums keep calling us back. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment & Subscribe Here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Badlands & Baptisms: A Southern Man Softens 22:29

9 days ago22:29

22:29

Bats cut the badlands sky. A traditional man softens. Who gets to cry? Who gets to weave? Another man steps into the ocean and forgets himself. He comes back with nothing. But what’s that he’s offering to the being who sent him in? The waters are rising. Step in. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Witch and the waters: A Story Meditation 17:20

16 days ago17:20

17:20

A king devoured by his own hunger. Skin dissolving into fur, into feathers, into scales. The tunnel calls, but will you step through? The sign above the entrance reads: Weird. Is that just another way of seeing? Breathe deep. Submerge. Listen. The water is speaking. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment and Subscribe here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Meandering Soundscapes: Looms, Temples, and the Other Side 38:47

23 days ago38:47

38:47

Looms clatter, voices hum, a temple echoes with recitations.Gods wander through the Himalayan foothills. Are we moving? Sliding, flying, riding: through sound, space, a weave of voices. Let your headphones slide other worlds into your noggin. Listen close. The loom is weaving. The temple is calling. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment and Subscribe here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Ape Chiefs Demand Rent, the Railway Demands Blood 16:53

30 days ago16:53

16:53

Every tool is a spell, every technology a superpower. Clamshell knives slash AI cloaks. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment and Subscribe here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Raging Against the Dying of the Light (and Other Poor Life Choices) 1:14:56

6 weeks ago1:14:56

1:14:56

Leaving monkhood was easy. I just got in a cab and changed out of my robes. But what about the aftershocks? The lost rhythms, the misfit loves, the phantom schedules? My friend Sean Shea and I sat down for a ‘business meeting.’ I do love our business meetings. Or rather, our deep and personal conversations. Sean also reflected on helping his father pass through the portal of death. Somewhere between the ashram and the grocery store, between devotion and despair, we roamed. Bring some potatoes, onions, and your feelings about death. Let’s share a meal together. Sean guides and encourages song writers. Maybe you? https://www.songsforpositivechange.com/ Keep an ear our for our upcoming song-story workshop. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment and Subscribe here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
God’s Wife Just Wanted Some Peace and Quiet 21:06

7 weeks ago21:06

21:06

What happens when God’s wife just wants some peace and quiet? Creation. If worldviews are bubbles, what happens when they pop? Listen in. Float through the bubbles. Find the third spiral. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment and Subscribe here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
3 Friends Singing in a Tunnel 28:45

8 weeks ago28:45

28:45

Voices resound on stone, and trumpet through abandoned pipes. A hum, a howl, a half-remembered hymn— Sticks whack PVC pipes, the sound swallowed and reshaped. Somewhere, a songbird forgets its own tune. Somewhere, a coyote grins in the dark. A card is flipped, a role is claimed. Sing low enough, and the walls might sing back. Step inside. You might just hear your own voice waiting. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment and Subscribe here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Language is a Form of Domestication- Three Readings 11:41

9 weeks ago11:41

11:41

A fence stands, half-built, half-rotten, full of holes. Birds nest in its holes, vines curl through its cracks. This fence is language, with old myths slipping past the pickets. Step through. Again, step through. Let your ears grow fur. Three readings from three random pages of wonderful books. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment and Subscribe here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Rilke and Rasa - Arts of Heroism 3:14

9 weeks ago3:14

3:14

A poem from Rilke converses with the Hindu aesthetic system of rasa. A good book about rasa. Rilke’s full poem: The Man Watching By Rainer Maria Rilke I can tell by the way the trees beat, after so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes that a storm is coming, and I hear the far-off fields say things I can’t bear without a friend, I can’t love without a sister. The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on across the woods and across time, and the world looks as if it had no age: the landscape, like a line in the psalm book, is seriousness and weight and eternity. What we choose to fight is so tiny! What fights with us is so great. If only we would let ourselves be dominated as things do by some immense storm, we would become strong too, and not need names. When we win it’s with small things, and the triumph itself makes us small. What is extraordinary and eternal does not want to be bent by us. I mean the Angel who appeared to the wrestlers of the Old Testament: when the wrestlers’ sinews grew long like metal strings, he felt them under his fingers like chords of deep music. Whoever was beaten by this Angel (who often simply declined the fight) went away proud and strengthened and great from that harsh hand, that kneaded him as if to change his shape. Winning does not tempt that man. This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively, by constantly greater beings. –Translated by Robert Bly Free Story & Media Consultation Comment and Subscribe here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
This Podcast is a Puppy 11:23

10 weeks ago11:23

11:23

Snuffle, sniffle… A podcast isn’t interviews, or music, or rants, or radio plays. Not necessarily. A podcast is sound. Except when it’s a puppy. This podcast wanders and wags, following trails through mossy soundscapes and whispered words. Curious, it circles someone’s feet, nuzzling the edges of what is knows. It trots off again: tail high, ears perked, seeking stories in the wind. Sniffle, snuffle… Free Story & Media Consultation Comment and Subscribe here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Sleeping Around, Sinking Below, and Stitching It All Together 38:40

10 weeks ago38:40

38:40

A man is pulled into a wild current, and emerges more curvaceous than he went in. Needles pierce fabric, thread pulling tight, creating and mending. Between drowning and dreaming, between bed and abyss, something is being stitched. Something is unraveling. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment & Subscribe Here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Coal Devils, Broken Tales, and Stories Past the Edge 21:15

11 weeks ago21:15

21:15

An agreement broken. Hillsides torn open, stone bones exposed. Trains roll on—steel to wood, wood to stone, stone to soil, mile after mile. Some circle familiar fires. Others wander to where tangled stories grow, where a truth too large splits its own shell. When the story cracks, something new sings through. Come listen, sit beneath this tree, even if it drips sap. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment and Subscribe here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
The River We Are 25:49

12 weeks ago25:49

25:49

Can a Wall Street refugee find peace in a hut by the sea? How do you grieve being born into an army? Praise for the beings in my life. There’s a river running through us, every time we drink and pee. It carries shame, blood, joy, songs.Bats cut the badlands sky. A traditional man softens. Who gets to cry? Who gets to weave? Another man steps into the ocean and forgets himself. He comes back with nothing. But what’s that he’s offering to the being who sent him in? The waters are rising. Step in. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment & Subscribe Here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Healing Hospitals- Holistic Health for Patients and Doctors 48:08

14 weeks ago48:08

48:08

Prescription pads crumble into compost. The wind hums a second opinion. Healing isn’t in the pill, but in the soil, in the hands, in the rhythm of breath. The council of healers is vast—grandmothers, rivers, fungi, grief. What does medicine look like when it stops rushing? When it listens? My friend Amy Walsh M.D., an emergency room doctor, joins me for blue-sky dreaming of what health care could be. A conversation on restoration, reciprocity, and the art of being well. Read Amy’s wonderful writing here. Free Story & Media Consultation Comment and Subscribe here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Are you neurodiverse? 2:28

15 weeks ago2:28

2:28

A friend asked me, 'Are you neurodiverse?' Here's my reply. What might yours be? Free consultation for your creative projects: https://tidycal.com/theodorestorypaths/15-minute-meeting Comment here: https://storypaths.substack.com/p/e197d8e0-7b98-4c0f-9e46-a80b8232b1e3 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
A Grief ceremony 13:30

16 weeks ago13:30

13:30

In a recent grief ceremony, a simple practice made sharing together possible. https://storypaths.substack.com/p/8b6dc400-9b83-4174-bec3-8e047707543f Free consultation for your creative projects: https://tidycal.com/theodorestorypaths/15-minute-meeting Comment here: https://storypaths.substack.com/p/e197d8e0-7b98-4c0f-9e46-a80b8232b1e3 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Pee On Us, You Cowards 10:09

17 weeks ago10:09

10:09

A message from the land itself. Juniper grass, mullein hills, rabbits taking notes on human absurdity. Dark moonshine, saffron sunsets, an old stump humming. Somewhere, an oak tree nods in approval. Comment here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Transition from a sensible podcast 52:44

19 weeks ago52:44

52:44

I must do what I must do. But as a friend, I ask you honestly if you want something more coherent and less experimental Free consultation for your creative projects: https://tidycal.com/theodorestorypaths/15-minute-meeting Comment here: https://storypaths.substack.com/p/1c1e2383-21c4-4cf3-a9a1-23af8a074de3 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Overlapping Soundscapes Two 21:44

21 weeks ago21:44

21:44

Listen to ambient sounds from other lands as you travel through your own. Free consultation for your creative projects: https://tidycal.com/theodorestorypaths/15-minute-meeting Comment here: https://storypaths.substack.com/p/e197d8e0-7b98-4c0f-9e46-a80b8232b1e3 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
An interspecies romance 3:32

23 weeks ago3:32

3:32

A ridiculous song written in the foothills of the Himalayas more than 20 years ago. Free consultation for your creative projects: https://tidycal.com/theodorestorypaths/15-minute-meeting Comment here: https://storypaths.substack.com/p/1c1e2383-21c4-4cf3-a9a1-23af8a074de3 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Eros and Spirit 27:16

25 weeks ago27:16

27:16

For many years I learned of sensuality and spirit as being different, or opposites. Here I discover ways that they are the same. Special thanks to Ji for beatboxing with me at the end. Recorded at the Freezer Burn Festival (Alberta Regional Burning Man) in Summer ’24. Free consultation for your creative projects: https://tidycal.com/theodorestorypaths/15-minute-meeting Comment here: https://storypaths.substack.com/p/e197d8e0-7b98-4c0f-9e46-a80b8232b1e3 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Overlapping Soundscapes 30:42

27 weeks ago30:42

30:42

Listen to ambient sounds from other lands as you travel through your own. Free consultation for your creative projects: https://tidycal.com/theodorestorypaths/15-minute-meeting Comment here: https://storypaths.substack.com/p/1c1e2383-21c4-4cf3-a9a1-23af8a074de3 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
This season, Story Paths Goes Sketchbook 23:25

29 weeks ago23:25

23:25

Welcome to Season 5. What is a podcast? Simply put: sound. Any kind of sound. Let’s take this medium for a spin. Comment here: https://storypaths.substack.com/p/6c6ec518-3a64-483c-910a-ca278c5eb0b5 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Season 4 Finale: What Might a Podcast be? 19:24

50 weeks ago19:24

19:24

I recently called a small group of well-wishing friends together around a fire for a story share. This is a culture-weaving practice, where one person shares their life story with others. My friend John Wolfstone did this when he was leaving our island in the Salish Sea, speaking themes of ancestral healing that were present for him in his time here. After being here for about two years, I felt the moment had come. I’ve noticed a tendency I have, when arriving somewhere new, to become silent. To observe, to share little about myself. Then, if I feel safe and ready, I come out. This is my coming out. It was vulnerable, because I don’t have long-term relations here. Yet there are those I felt I could call on to be present, and I feel blessed by how they showed up and witnessed me. Friends backed me up with singing and guitar to accompany my own drumming, story and song. My life remembered is a prism of portals: each one opens to detailed sensory and emotional experiences; what to choose? I thought of organizing my life story according to a theme, like my relationship with spirituality or eros. It felt too abstract. I settled on arranging my story according to land: places that have homed me. The lakelands to the east of this continent, the grassland-mountain regions where I grew up, the arid regions of recovery and introspection, the far eastern lands with dense mythical patterns forming a story skin over hill and plateau, and the bombastic temperate rainforest I now call home. With land, people. With land, memories. I feel blessed to have lived this and shared it. To hear more about it, do listen to the audio above. Are you called to share your story? Perhaps you’ve passed through a difficult trial, and feel called to be witnessed. Perhaps you’re leaving a place, or coming somewhere new. People also share stories with pictures when returning from travels, as another friend of mine did upon returning from Australia, expressing detailed insights into the ecology there. Life rarely ties up neatly in a bow, and many of us don’t have the full and constant community we might want, yet perhaps for you, as for me, the time to share your story has come. I hope so. This also marks the end of this season. What’s coming next? A podcast is, in its essense, sound. That could be interviews and musings. It could also be audio documents of travel, music, riffing on stories real-time, and much more besides. This podcast and newsletter has an exploratory, curious, community-weaving nature. Kind of like a friendly dog, sniffing around, charming people and getting them talking. This coming season, this podcast-dog is going off-leash. Hear you then. Happy storying and being storied, Theo This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
How Stories Shape Our Lives: Myth, Science, and Media 7:43

51 weeks ago7:43

7:43

Read this as an article, and share your thoughts here Book one-on-one story sessions here Here's an interesting vista of reflection. Consider the meta-layers of narrative in your life, and how they cause you to interface with the world. What's a meta-layer of narrative? It could be mythical explanations of constellations; it could be their scientific explanation, or a hybrid of the two. It's an understanding that doesn't come from your own life alone, but which affects your experience of yourself and the world. They are filters between us and our world. Not necessarily blocking the world, but perhaps letting a certain quality of light in. In a culture with a strong oral tradition, the stories that are told and retold about orca, raven, buffalo, magpie, spider, selkie—all these inform people in their relationships with those being. Modern media has its meta-narratives too. This is true in the case of nonfiction news, giving a specific account of the world, emphasizing certain parts, and de-emphasizing or omitting others. When we receive information from that news source, we are receiving a particular perspective on the world. That news source is like a collective sense organ and brain that gives information about the world to whoever is connected to it. We’re also informed by fiction, which in the way it lands in us, is not as different from non-fiction as we might imagine. Reading the Lord of the rings, we see great heroes, simple hobbits, crafty wizards, agile elves, and ancient trees. We may find ourselves inhabiting those characters in our day to day lives. In contemporary stories, we may find queer characters, neurodivergent characters, characters happily outside media beauty norms. We may inhabit those characters in their story, which will change how we we inhabit our lives, and our collective lives. Which meta narratives are you influenced by, and how do they affect your experience of the world? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
The Otherworld of The Boy and the Heron - With Chandler Passafiume and Theo Lowry 1:28:23

1 year ago1:28:23

1:28:23

I recently watched Studio Ghibli’s new film, The Boy and the Heron. Perplexed and fascinated, I watched it again. The film has many layers, and not neatly stacks. Metaphors, history, personal experiences, imagination, mythology: there are many aspects to focus on. I’m especially drawn by the films’ two worlds, and how they intertwine. One is a countryside estate in Japan during World War 2. The other is an underworld accessed through a mysterious tower. While it will be helpful for you if you’ve seen the film, and there will be spoilers, I reckon this will be interesting either way. To help with this exploration, I brought on my friend Chandler Passafiume: storyteller, game designer, writer and poet. When we met, both of us staying in an island farming community, our story minds connected. He’s so good that he may even become one of a few regular, rotating co-hosts on the show. You can find him at Substack at Wandering Cloud. Overlapping worlds is a huge theme in mythology, as in modern stories, and aren’t we each moving in different worlds that affect each other? The world of work and home life, of one group of friends and another, of diverse lands we moved between. We discuss the boy hero’s approach to the otherworld, how the same characters appear differently on each side, how some characters move between the worlds, the role of the trickster heron, and even mutual causality between worlds. As this one was a lively conversation, I’ve chosen not to make it into a written article as well. It’s available on any podcast player; just search under Story Paths. Until the next, Theo This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Floating or Falling: The Tale of a Great Life Crossing 5:13

1 year ago5:13

5:13

Book one-on-one story sessions here Read this as an article, and share your thoughts here Here’s something a little different, a fictionalized story of my own life. You may find resonance with your own canyon crossings. For a version with music and sound, listen to the recording. In we go. A man is crossing a sandy, stony plane. As he passes, long-tailed mice with huge ears hop behind wiry bushes who are as thrifty with water as a posse of poor widows abandoned by their children are with their coppers. The boy is thrifty too. His energies run beneath his skin, burrowed in his bones. It's been such a long journey. And just when he's getting swing in his stride, and learning to avoid the little cactus balls hidden all about, he stops short, kicking pebbles down into a canyon so deep that the bottom is lost to dark mist. He steps back, looks across. Of course, his trail continues on the far side. As usual, he could turn back, though he's not convinced that the land wouldn't shift to confound him on back here again. Or some parallel place. Also as usual, there are people between him and the canyon's far side, skating on the air above the great drop as thought playing on invisible ice. He is no longer fooled by their grace. Now he sees the hitches in their movements, the quavers, the dropping down a foot before rising triumphantly again. The dust embedded in their clothes, the rouge covering wrinkles and red scars. F**k it, he says. Then bless me, my lord, and something about universal abundance. A couple words for Odin, for Zeus. Krishna, Mohammed, Jesus, Coyote, Raven, Cailleach and the Creator and Creatrix while he's at it. Then he steps out. It's even further down than it looked. The fall is slow, like a leaf. The wind is silky and succulent on his skin, full of moisture. A river runs beneath him, roaring up the walls, though he can’t see it yet. The fall is so slow that on his way down, he has time to consider his entire journey, from start until now. The creatures who helped and thwarted him. The half dozen other canyons he's crossed. He even manages to release envy for those b******s skating up above. Or loosen it, anyway. And of course, when he lands, it is on the near side of the river. Fording it is wet, precarious work.The far canyon wall looks like it will be a hell of a climb. The last ones sure were. He takes a few breaths and starts up. He's getting stronger. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

1
Living Lore: An Animistic View of Stories as Beings 15:31

1 year ago15:31

15:31

Book one-on-one story sessions here Read this as an article, and share your thoughts here Let’s open with a story. Tiger Farming Termites Neat rows of wood are crisscrossed to draw in delectable foragers, though truth be told, Tiger tastes termites in a pinch. Waiting. Crouched. Poised. Bored as the boards he's laid out, until an unconscious ungulate wanders warily, to nibble green blades. Tiger pounces, rolls, breaks the creature’s soft neck. Crushes termites. The dying words of the aardvark are ‘Oh brethren bugs! Warn my kin.’ When the feast has passed, Tiger grumbles for weeks, hungry. Are Stories Good or Bad? If we ask the question of whether a given story is good or bad, this binary approach quickly falls apart. For this exploration, let’s use the word ‘story’ in the broadest sense. This story could be an old myth that nourishes a people's relation with the land, or an old myth that pits people against others. It could be propaganda, put out by a political group or corporation to corral people into certain behaviors. A story could provoke racism, casting certain people in victor roles and others as villains. A story may cast us humans as masters of the Earth, with dominion over all others, or rather as newcomers to this wondrous place, and the most dependent of all the other beings who preceded us. Is there anything as powerful as a story? The stories that we take in determine our behavior, over our lifetimes and over generations. A story can be about everyday people from our own time and place, and the happenings in their lives may divert us from the difficulties in our own. The tale in a television series might capture the minds of millions, season after season, so much so that viewers know more about these fictional folks than they do about the historical figures upon whom they're based. For the minds and motivations of the historical figures are opaque, but those of the characters are transparent, allowing us, the viewers, to enter in, get a sense of who they are, and why they act as they do. Living Stories Is a given story good or bad? Instead of a binary rubric—rooted in computing and notions of piety and sin, good and bad karma, or a scale of justice—I instead propose an animistic understanding. I'm sitting now by a pond where I often write these articles. I see old man's beard moss hanging on willow trees, and sword ferns with spores dotting their undersides. I feel the sun shining on my forehead, hands and chest. A mosquito lands on the moss, a raven steals eggs from another bird's nest. As the season goes on, this sun’s cool light will increase in heat until I must retreat indoors in the full of the day. Are these things good or bad? The mosquitoes bad for me, but good for the birds who eat ki. The willow is beautiful to me, but is out-competing reeds and ferns around ki. The sun nourishes our entire planet, and yet can bring death-dealing heat. So let us drop this consideration of good or bad, and even a spectrum between them. Let’s instead consider the willow, the raven, the sun, the mosquito, as beings with their own natures and wills, and their own intricate relationships with each other. Now, let’s bring this allegory of an ecosystem to stories: their identities, their natures, and their relationships with other stories. As there are predatory creatures, there are predatory stories: propaganda that divides and conquers, setting kin against kin, fomenting nations into war. As a bear upturns a stone and digs up the larvae underneath, some stories cause people to enter the homes of others and take whatever they want. Those stories say, ‘They are lesser than you. You deserve this.’ The bear doesn’t need stories to do this, but somehow we humans do. Migrating Stories A stream of water will gradually wear a trough into the land. That trough, given enough water and time, will become a canyon. So too with some stories who begin in an unassuming way, then grow and grow until they’re wearing a canyon into minds and hearts of listeners. Consider the story of Christianity: a rabbi and his followers preached revolutionary love at a time of colonization and war. After his death, that story gradually spread from land to land, and as it did, it adapted to people's hearts and minds, or you could say they tamed it for their own purposes. The story appeared one way in eastern lands, another in the West, North, South, and indeed in every individual who came into contact with that story, be they believers or not. So too with the spread of Buddhism: from a man's teaching in northern India, it spread north into what's now called China, Tibet and Bhutan, south into India and Sri Lanka, east into Japan, and now in pockets throughout the world. In each place this story adapted to the landscape of minds, hearts and culture, just as moss will grow differently on an aldar or on an oak. Story Spores There are stories that support empires. Empires arose in Europe, China, Japan, South America, United States, Germany, Italy, Rome, and Vijay Nagar, and elsewhere. Each had standing armies, central power, and stories to live by, which told them that they had a right to rule others, a right to expand, to take, to tax. Yet the stories within them had many different flavors in different times and places. Perhaps the stories justifying empire are like spores on the wind, finding purchase in different cultures and changing according to their host. Are spores good or bad? The old animistic view considers stories as beings. As people. Just as we're negotiating situations throughout our lives—setting terms, considering what kind of connection we want with this person or that person—so too let us consider our relationship with stories. Just as our relationship with human people is not fixed but shifting, so too is our relationship with stories. Prompts Reflect on a story that migrated into your life from a different culture or background. How did it adapt to your inner landscape? Think about a story that supported or challenged an empire-like structure in your life (e.g. a restrictive relationship or community). How did this story challenge the old guard? Where did that story find strength? Explore a narrative that your business or industry promotes. How does this story interact with the broader cultural landscape? Reflect on how the marketing of a similar product varies between audiences. For example, how do you see different kinds of vehicles being marketed, or brands of ice cream? Which stories take root in which soil? Until the next, happy creating, Theo This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storypaths.substack.com/subscribe…

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Between Campfires Part II: Finding Belonging in Exile 12:44

1 year ago12:44