Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Stories

Before we learned to document our knowledge into books, we told stories.  In every tribe, in every country, throughout history, our elders passed down their wisdom to us through the art of storytelling.  It was through these stories that we cultivated morality and self awareness.

Every aspect of our barbaric lives were accentuated by parallel stories and legends - stories meant to teach us and guide us.  After many generations, the stories told by the elders were refined and polished by the wisdom gained by each retelling of the story.  As our tribes grew and our travels reached ever outward, our curiosity expanded our knowledge, and we told new stories.  What always endured, though, were the core legends of our people.  We held fast to our traditions and our rich history of stories because they offered us a way to honor and practice the knowledge our people had gained.

And before long our tribes had grown, split off, spread out and multiplied.  And with them went their stories.

I wonder how our elders would feel seeing what we've done to their stories.