Stories are keys that unlock life’s mystery, beauty, and purpose. Stories change people’s lives. They inform and shape identity. Choctaw storyteller Tim Tingle says, “The stories of your family and friends are your key to who you are and how you came to be.”
The Symbolism of the Key
The story as a key is an inescapable symbol in human lives. Ishtar, the queen of the universe, had seven keys that would unlock the gates to the underworld. Athena carried keys to the city of Athens. Jesus said, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.” In China, keys are given at birth and worn to lock the child into happy circumstances. Ariadne gives Theseus the key, the string, which opens the lock of the Minotaur’s maze.
Stories are keys. Tim Tingle’s award-winning story “Crossing Bok Chitto” tells of 19th century slaves living on one side of the Bok Chitto, a Mississippi river, and Choctaws living on the other. Between them was a “stone path just beneath the surface of the river.” This “key” was used by the Choctaws to help the slaves escape to freedom on the other side of the river.
Stories unlock life’s mystery, beauty, and purpose. They do so by reminding people how important it is to connect with one another in meaningful ways. Stories also require a connection to one’s self. Stories can help a person be more self-analytical. Storytellers, in particular, learn to be so -- otherwise, how can they sincerely tell a story? How can they sincerely and with passion and inspiration move others with their words if they aren’t willing to examine the place that they come from?
What Stories Unlock
Tingle described delivering a keynote speech in Texas where he heard a new term to him – “purism,” which someone explained as “It means you aren't prejudiced, you just prefer our race to remain pure."
“I believe at the depths of my heart that the most difficult challenge we face is overcoming the attitudes of our founding fathers regarding race. ‘All men are created equal’ never meant "all" men, not Indian people and certainly not African-Americans.”
So what is at the heart of listening to and learning from stories? “We need to first recognize the fallacy of our attitudes and work to overcome them.” The errors in reasoning that cause prejudice must be unlocked if people want to live with integrity, in community, with freedom and communication.
Stories are the key which can open the lock. The world needs tellers, and the world needs listeners. Stories exist in the space between.
NOTE: The Power of Story: Facing Prejudice includes more insights and information from the interview with Tim Tingle.
References
- Tingle, Tim. Personal Interview. 15 Aug. 2008.
- Tingle, Tim. Walking Choctaw Road, Cinco Puntas Press, 2005.
Shaun Perkins - Shaun Perkins, teacher, poet, storyteller, porch-sitter, beekeeper, gardener, writer, has been a high school and university teacher for ...
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