The Virtue of Having a Story
If you’re not the kind of person who likes to hear the same three things over again, then perhaps you’ll find some solace in the idea of having a story told to you by someone else. While not every story is about a storyteller, a story may come from someone who has lived a long and adventurous life. A story is something that we can read and hear and tell, but how does the writer make his or her story special.
If you’re not the kind of person who likes to hear the same three things over again, then perhaps you’ll find some solace in the idea of having a story told to you by someone else. While not every story is about a storyteller, a story may come from someone who has lived a long and adventurous life.
Stories have a way of telling us about the hero, the villain, and the hero’s heart, but they also speak volumes about the person who gave the story. A story is something that we can read and hear and tell, but how does the writer make his or her story special?
A storyteller has a reputation for being one who knows how to tell a story. This might be a quality that comes with a certain kind of background, or it might mean that the storyteller has something to say that other people want to hear.
The virtue of having a story is the basis for any medium. If a journalist had no stories to tell, he or she would cease to be a journalist. A singer would cease to be a singer if she didn’t have a story to tell.
A story doesn’t have to be just a conversation, though the medium of a medium often creates the illusion of a conversation between the storyteller and the listener. A film is a story in itself, and when a film has been told properly, it becomes a classic tale.
A story can become an art form, as in a play. It can also take on a life of its own if it was told in the right way at the right time, so the storyteller takes on the form of a character, even if it’s just a pastiche of the real thing.
A storyteller is more than just a storyteller; he or she is the person who has taken up the mantle of telling a classic tale. In this way, the storyteller becomes the classic tale itself.
You could count a great storytellers among the heroes in this world. Imagine what life would be like if there were no heroic tales, no tales of courage and compassion, no tales of love and loss, no stories of winning and losing, and no tales at all.
There would be no romance, no sharing, no telling of classic tales, no telling of history. Everything would be the same, no hero or heroine, no sacrifice, no story, and no storyteller.
There are those who tell their stories, those who celebrate those who write them, and those who read them to understand and soothe. But there is much to learn about a story if you seek the virtue of having a story.
Stories can become an art form and if the art form is well done, it can even become a novel. As Shakespeare wrote, “These are the adventures of love; and the end of them is well.”
Perhaps the truest lesson to learn about the virtue of having a story is this: Just because you have one doesn’t mean you should hold it hostage to a story you don’t. A great story is a great, important, powerful story, and if it’s told correctly, it can be a great story itself.
