The Women Who Tell Stories to Save Lives
Recently my husband gave me a new book to read. It’s an older, classic piece of literature called ‘The Arabian Nights’.
The story is about a King who found out his wife was cheating on him everytime he left the palace. This hurt king retaliated by killing the queen and then taking a new ‘wife’ every night, only to kill each young lady the following day so that she would not have the chance to cheat on him or hurt him. This caused great grief to the country because the king was slowly killing off all their young ladies. A witty young woman tells her family that she has a plan to save the country and stop the bloodshed. She then offered herself up as the next bride and demanded a turn with the King.
Her first night with the King she asked permission to tell a story, promising that it would dazzle and entertain him before bed. She enticed him with a wild, engaging tale but stops before it’s over so that the king can rest and tend to his business the next day. The king therefore says he will hold off on killing her until the following morning, after he’s heard the end of the story. The witty young lady repeats this cycle each night, ending each part of the story with a cliffhanger and saying ‘if it pleases the King, permit me to live one more day and I shall tell you something even even stranger and more exciting than what you’ve just heard tonight’. Thus, each night the King replies ‘I will allow it, I want to hear what happens next’.
She is able to keep this up for 1001 nights, and through the wild tales and witty continuations she is able to help the King heal from his hurt, gain insight into his actions and ultimately end the bloodshed of young queens.
The Power of Stories
The King had a story: he loved his wife and she cheated on him, causing him hurt.
The King then told himself a story about his story: women are bad and will hurt him unless he hurts them first.
He then lived this out to the great demise of himself and others. In order to change this tragedy, he had to see and understand a new story about himself, about women and about the way the world worked.
You also have a story. You have a story about your story. We all live out whatever story we tell ourselves.
The very subtle art of telling ourselvs stories ends up having a enormous impact on what we experience in the outer world. The King's story is dramatic and easy to see; ours can be trickier but just as powerful.
Stories are the lifeblood of the Inner World. If we can understand our stories, re-write our stories and interpret the stories around us, we become masters of incredible power endowed to us in the Inner World. Conversely though, if we do not understand our stories or know how to re-write them and cannot interpret the stories offered to us, then we become slaves, victims and easily controlled by the unknown authors of the stories we live by.
(If you haven’t already, check out the Inner World Guide on stories. It’s a great intro to this topic with three steps to get your power back. Just scroll to the bottom of the page to download the Guide)
I want to Tell You a Story About You
A wise man once said ‘Text without context leads to pretext’.
When we look at our current situations and do not have the proper context in place to understand them, it’s easy to write a story about those situations that have false assumptions. False assumptions can be some of the biggest contributors to our suffering, poor choices and victimization.
For example, if a caterpillar doesn’t understand who he really is yet and starts to compare himself to the other bugs, he might come to some very unhelpful assumptions. When other bugs are growing wings, getting bigger, building homes and having babies, he is getting fat, creating a giant web that probably looks and feels like a grave and slowly going to sleep. If the caterpillar doesn’t understand the greater context of who he is and what he is designed to do, then many of his circumstances are going to feel wildly unfair, confusing and lead to many false assumptions.
Likewise, we excel and propel forward with great clarity when we understand the context of our stories. Your story has a context.
For example, you are a part of a very special group of people that belong to the 'transitional generations'. Next week I will tell you the context of your own story, including the unique category of people you belong to and how it is directly tied to a revolution you didn’t know was upon us.
And, like the King, if you permit me another day to continue this series, I will tell you something stranger and even more exciting than what you’ve heard so far about your own story and how that context could easily change the way you see your circumstances, history and future possibilities.
Til Next Time.
Jesska Layne Herfst, MAPC