Aeroplanes and the man who wore brown
Over the years, story- mostly in book form- has been part of my life. In addition to regular real-life friends, I hung out with Anne (don’t forget the e), with Edmund and Lucy and their siblings, with Laura and Mary on the prairie, those kids who introduced me to the spelling of aeroplane vs airplane and whose book, though I can’t remember the title or author or even the story, lived in that corner of the library near the door where the man who wore brown would read books out loud to a room full of children on Saturday mornings. I was enchanted with him and have never forgotten the wonder of it.
When I moved into my own home I brought many of these book-friends with me and learned that sometimes I needed to withdraw into their world when my own became too topsy turvy to handle. It was natural to start reading to my own children from early and reading aloud became the favourite part of my day well into their teenage years.
Along the way, it started to become obvious to me that many people learn best through storytelling. The words of Emily Dickinson to “tell all the truth, but tell it slant” began to speak clearly to me- not just telling truth to children, but telling truths about life, about how we live and love, about our yearnings, and the riches of what we can glimpse as possibility. These ideas and more are carried well through a good living story. Just think of the Narnia books and how we can think about God in the figure of Aslan or heaven as we read The Last Battle. How real friendships with all kinds of people are rewarding each in their own way. And for that matter, what real friendship is.
When it comes to to it, storytelling may not sound like the most efficient way of teaching, but I think it can count as efficient because what we learn through story tends to move into the very structure of how we live out our beliefs. And since the burden of learning, if it needs to be labelled, sits squarely in the mind of the one learning, a good story to direct thoughts reaches far into the corners of the mind, sometimes germinating a new idea immediately, and often setting down roots for later.
The process of expanding learning from automatically using the didactic way of teaching in favour of telling truth on the slant when needed , and in what situation each method is best used, is a lesson that is taking its time to grow in me; time to deepen is another factor of learning through story. As we grow and evolve, so too does our understanding of what we want and how things could be, of how we can impact what could be. There are always layers and nuance to what that means at a specific time and it often depends on the season of life we’re in. One could say it’s an organic or holistic way to live.
All these years later aeroplanes still draw my attention. I think back on that word as evidence of the startling fact that the world contains more than I know and I continue to have a longing to discover what I can.
Join me?