:: Story Lines, not Party Lines by Rod Dreher @ The Imaginative Conservative
What happened brings to mind Pope Benedict XVI’s observation that the most convincing arguments for Christianity aren’t propositional arguments at all but rather the art and the saints that the faith produces—that is, the stories Christians tell and live…
Argument has its place, but story is what truly moves the hearts and minds of men. The power of myth—which is to say, of storytelling—is the power to form and enlighten the moral imagination, which is how we learn right from wrong, the proper ordering of our souls, and what it means to be human…
Kirk understood that the world might be won or lost on front porches, in bedrooms at night, around family hearths, in movie theaters and anywhere young people hear, see, or read the stories that fill and illuminate their moral imaginations. If you do not give them good stories, they will seek out bad ones.
“And the consequences will be felt not merely in their failure of taste,” Kirk said, “but in their misapprehension of human nature, lifelong; and eventually, in the whole tone of a nation.”
Story. I'm starting a Literature class this fall, with numerous students who are not 'typical' in their learning style. But our focus is 'story', the essence. We'll use multi-media, starting with the written word, but moving into recorded book, movie, related media. We start with 'Boys in the Boat,' not in small part to your suggestion of the excellence of this 'story.'
ReplyDeletePBS 'American Experience' has been kind enough to share 2 correlative stories, and I just can't get enough. The fact that Louis Zamperini was there as well as Jessie Owens, the same year... Story.
I know I digress, but story. It's what gets us watching the sports, and looking at the person, the soul, not just the grit or the sport. Watching these Olympics with a fervor.