Stories

I've been thinking a lot about the stories we tell within our families, and how SixSeeds supports and enriches these stories.  That's why I was delighted to see this recent essay by Richard Gamble in a recent posting on Front Porch Republic. He starts by reminding readers of Wendell Berry's character Hannah Coulter, who said:

"When they were little the children were always wanting stories.  We read them stories and we told them stories.... But did we tell the stories right?  It was lovely, the telling and listening, usually the last thing before bedtime.  But did we tell the stories in such a way as to suggest that we had needed a better chance or a better life or a better place than we had?

I don’t know, but I have had to ask.  Suppose your stories, instead of mourning and rejoicing over the past, say that everything should have been different.  Suppose you encourage or even just allow your children to believe that their parents ought to have been different people, with a better chance, born in a better place.  Or suppose the stories you tell them allow them to believe, when they hear it from other people, that farming people are inferior and need to improve themselves by leaving the farm.  Doesn’t that finally unmake everything that has been made?  Isn’t that the loose thread that unravels the whole garment?
And how are you ever to know where the thread breaks, and when the tug begins?"

Gamble goes on to raise some important questions about the role of stories in civic life and in forming character. (Points for quoting Lewis on telling a tale that "fires the imagination, the example that strengthens the will." )

I'm not going to draw this into a tight conclusion, but I thought the essay was thought provoking, as were some of the comments  beneath ("The only stories that will 'improve the minds and hearts' of both young and older citizens are those of which you are not the center.") 

What do you think?