![]() ![]() We’re increasingly seeing that power demonstrated lately in attempts in school districts across the nation to ban books-those that offer views of a world and of people that may not conform to a certain group’s rigid definitions of what is “acceptable.” Because they know the power of story to open people’s minds and empower them. They know the power of story and tried to silence it. ![]() Story has such power that those who fear dissent for their ideas burn and ban books-like the Nazis during the Holocaust, or more recently the Texas lieutenant governor who interceded to stop the authors of Forget the Alamo from talking in an event at the state history museum about the extensively verified and supported research in their book that debunks the “American heroism” myth of the Alamo in favor of its less flattering and more troubling truths about our nation’s history. And storytellers are the ones who bring these human stories to life for us.Įuropean leaders dragged their feet on putting economic and political pressure on Russia as Putin’s forces pressed down on Ukraine…until an emotional phone call with Zelensky telling the stories of his people-their situation, their suffering, their heroism- moved them literally to tears and almost immediately prompted action. We filter them through the lens of our common human experience. They draw us intimately in and engage our emotions. Stories are what make ideas palatable and digestible. There’s a reason propaganda is one of Putin’s most powerful tools. Ideas and information may be the necessary elixir of life, but story is the delivery device that gives them potency. It made me feel Ukrainians’ fierceness, their incredible resourcefulness and grit, their heroism. Not because the scene was so well executed (though it was), but because it put me, directly and empathically, inside the skin of a people determined to fight together for their homes and country and freedom against an unjust attack and an army that far outguns and outnumbers them. It’s making me tear up even now as I write this. But their situation hit me with visceral immediacy when I watched soldiers in the film, on the eve of what they know is a doomed suicide mission, write letters to their loved ones back home. The first time I cried over what’s happening in Ukraine was a few days after the initial invasion–when my husband and I went to see the latest movie reboot of Cyrano, with Peter Dinklage.Īs it has for many of us, the Ukrainians’ plight has been chewing a hole in my gut since Russia began their unprovoked aggression. ![]()
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