Stories are the backbone of humanity.
We love them. We crave them. We need them.
Think about a story that changed your life. A work of literature, prose or poetry. Perhaps it's a story you heard from a friend or family member. Not just the stories that you love because they're interesting. Not even the ones you enjoy because they were made into good movies. Think about the ones that really affected you. The ones that still affect you to this day.
I cannot remember a time when I was not writing stories. But, then again, that is because I cannot remember a time I did not love them.
From the time I was a little boy, I can remember that I was fascinated with the art of story. I learned to read at a very young age, and began writing not much longer after. Even before I learned to write myself, I would have my mom write down or record the stories I told her. Some of my earliest memories consist of my mother writing down my words by the side of the public pool, holding a tape recorder up to my mouth, or merely listening as she lay in bed, as it was still too early to be respectfully awake. Some of my favorite stories were fairy tales, of course. The more Disney they were, the better. Then Robin Hood, King Arthur, and even Ivanhoe. I remember firing arrows across the playroom with my brothers, or jousting each other from atop our couch-cushion steeds. Then, Star Wars came into the mix. The moment I learned how to make a lightsaber noise with my mouth, I became a Jedi Master. My brother's jump-rope became Indiana Jones' whip and, subsequently, George Mallory's climbing ropes (this was, of course, after my mother realized that the presence of my father's bullwhip in the house, despite it being high up in the closet, posed a serious threat to my two twin brothers, both older and bigger and bad-guyier.) When super-heroes became a part of the equation, and my early adolescent years became filled with reading as many comic books as a boy my age could handle (I am unashamed of this fact: I have read the first 150 issues of the original Spider-Man series), and I knew that I would never be the same. Then came the classics. Jules Verne remains one of my favorite, with Robert Louis Stevenson and William Shakespeare entering the fray as well, accompanying ancient classics, such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid, as well as all forms of mythology. (I will confess, I love but one Hemingway book, and that is "Old Man and the Sea." The rest I do not find appealing.)
Stories are inescapable. They are essential to life. It is a rare occasion that some one goes through their life without hearing a story, telling a story, or experiencing a story. But why? Why are these stories so important to us? Why is it that men feel compelled to tell their stories, share their stories, listen to stories?
It is because without them, we fall apart.
We need stories to encourage us to do the incredible things that, elsewhere, we would never believe we could accomplish.
We need stories to keep us going when the going gets rough; that when the world seems too dark to go on, or when all hopes seems lost, the stories can show us the light.
We need stories to show us the good guys from the bad guys; to give us role models and heroes whom we aspire to be like.
We need stories to show us how to fight for good.
We need stories to teach us to believe.
We need stories to show us how to love.
In my experience, I have always looked to the stories I love to teach me to carry on. The human experience differs, and for this reason, there are many various stories. This allows for every one to connect to the stories that touch them the most.
An example of this is found in looking at the monsters and villains that our heroes have had to face over time. I find comic books to an excellent example of this. Take the heroes of the two most popular comic book publishers of the 20th Century, Marvel and DC.
When the comic book first took off with the emergence of Superman in 1938, Superman was fighting the average, ordinary, everyday criminal and rescuing the world from natural disasters. But with the USA's entry into World War II, Superman began to fight Nazis, as did a character who would later be introduced into the Marvel Universe, Captain America, created for the sole purpose to champion the American war effort.
During the 1950s, the heroes began to fight the last of the crimelords as well as Communists.
In the 1960s, the plethora of characters that make up the Marvel Universe was born out of the Cold War. Radiation created some of the most well-known heroes of our day and age, specifically the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and (my personal favorite) the Amazing Spider-Man.
The 70s and the early 80s saw the involvement of anti-war sentimentality, as well as heroes who fought to prevent substance abuse and racism, as well as the beginning of super-heroines.
The late 80s and 90s saw an interesting turn of events. As Generation X was coming to its summit, the world of comic books saw super-heroes that were no longer one-dimensional, but now fought many of the demons within, and even fought other super-heroes. Our heroes now fought robots, computers, artificial intelligence, and the looming certain doom that would be come the internet.
Then, in modern years, our heroes are born from genetic experiments and must fight similar experiments. Today's heroes are much like the 90s in that they are two-sided, but the increasing fear of terrorism and the fear of any one man gaining too much power has inspired a whole new world of villains to fight.
This is just one example of how the heroes of our times are both inspired by us and inspire us. And we need these heroes. We need all of the heroes who have endured throughout time, the ones that never die, the ones like King Arthur, Luke Skywalker, Robin Hood, Cinderella, Spider-Man. I could go on and on (and, in fact, I believe I will at some point. But that's another blog post.) The ones that fight the same villains we fight; that face the same struggles we face. The ones that overcome. The ones that teach us to persevere and overcome.
The fact of the matter is, we need these stories. They inspire us with hope, beauty, goodness, and the truth of the human experience. They give us heroes, models, ideals. They teach us many things, better than any other method of teaching. Nothing beats a good story.
Unfortunately, nothing that I have said in this entire article (blog...blurb?...rambling?...) can beat what I am about to show here. From the words of the great J.R.R. Tolkien, the direction of legend Peter Jackson, and the talent of Mr. Sean Astin.
Samwise Gamgee on the Power of Story
And there you have it. J.R.R. Tolkien would have agreed with me (he did, actually.)
The power of story should not be underrated nor under-appreciated. The next time you hear a good story, take a minute to reflect on just how grateful you are that you live in a world with story, a world where story is so powerful and so necessary. Thank your Maker for having given you these stories.
And then, go tell some of your own.
Stories change the world.
