Storytelling and Wisdom: Going Back to The Well
As a traveling storyteller, part of my job is to transport wisdom, carefully bundled within narrative, from wherever I may find it to wherever it may serve.
My understanding this aspect of my work has evolved a great deal over the forty years I’ve spent traveling the globe, gathering and telling tales. The most notable change is in how I see my role, which is now as much storylistener as a storyteller, aspiring to keep my ears, mind, and heart open for wisdom wherever I may find it. Some of this wisdom is ancient, carried in the old tales, while much is to be found moment by moment, in the unfolding stories of our lives. To paraphrase The Talmud, “Who is wise? The one who learns from everyone – and everything – they meet.” While I do not claim to be wise – which is, let’s face it, a foolish thing to say – I have been fortunate to live in a world where everyone – and everything – is my teacher.
Looking toward Wisdom Keepers Week, I have been wondering what I might contribute that will serve us as we confront the times through which we are living which are – to put it mildly – fraught.
What bubbles to the surface is a lovely bit of wisdom I was given back in the spring of 1990, on the day of my wedding. Though there had been a fair bit of drama leading up to the day, the wedding and celebration developed into one of those rare, perfect days, more beautiful than I could have imagined. It was so rich, in fact, that I found myself utterly overwhelmed.
“Taly,” I said to my brand-new wife, I said “It’s all too much. I don’t know how to take all this in.”
After reflecting for a moment, she said “I think we have to see today as though we are filling up a well, a deep well, one that we can return to for the rest of our lives. Because it won’t always be like this. We won’t always be surrounded by beauty and friendship and opulence and love and joy. There will be times when we find ourselves lost, feel alone, struggling, and sick. And, given your career choice, broke. And those are the times when we need to remember to go back to the well.”
She was exactly right. My wife was – and is – a wise woman.
What’s more, I have come to understand that this is something each of us does throughout our lives, filling our respective wells with moments of insight, discovery, connection, wonder, and awe – the stuff of stories. We do this collectively as well, in our families and our communities, and have been doing so for a very long time. Really, our wells are abundantly full, overflowing with those riches that can sustain us as we navigate challenging times.
The problem is that we forget.
That’s where wisdom comes in. Wisdom remembers, guides us back to the well, lets us draw sustenance from it. That is how I see what we will be doing at Wisdom Keepers Week. I am delighted honored to serve as a storyteller and storylistener this week, alongside such gifted and generous guides, as we all come together to find our way back to the well.
Storyteller Joel Ben Izzy will be welcoming guests at the beginning of the week with Tales of Wisdom – and some foolishness as well. Over the week he will lead a storytelling workshop to help guests learn how to harvest stories from their own lives, finding tales that help them hold darkness and light.
