Tell
me your story. Stories carry within them the shape of life,
the landscape of living. I can disagree with your logic, your theology, your
political views, or any number of your opinions, but I cannot disagree with
your story. It is, after all, your story. Stories are bridges of
human understanding.
The
use of story as a bridge for human understanding is the essence of the relatively
new field of narrative ethics. Examples include interreligious relationships
(Laurie L. Patton), biomedical ethics (Howard Brody, et. al.), LGBT advocacy
(e.g. Reconciling Ministries in the United Methodist Church), Liberation
Theology and civil rights (biblical stories of liberation, especially the
Exodus), certain aspects of feminist ethics of care (Carol Gilligan, et. al.)
and literature as a source of moral direction (Martha Nussbaum).
Unfortunately,
I recall too many times in my life that I’ve argued theology or politics when
the values of reconciliation would have been better served if I had simply
said, “Tell me your story.” I’ve responded to questions about my theological
perspective with didactic content and logic, leading to argument, when I could
have deepened relationship by simply responding with, “Let me tell you my story….”
Stories
invite us into a narrative journey with another person rather than confronting
us with a combative argument that calls for a staunch “yes or no … I’m with you
or against you.” Biomedical ethicist Howard Brody describes the magnetic attraction of
story with the beautiful term co-human presence. Co-human presence doesn’t
mean that we experience exactly how another person feels; it means that we enter
a narrative field with the “other” and are thereby joined in a common journey.
Stories, indeed, are bridges of human understanding.
I concluded
a recent poem (see the 5/27/12 post of this blog) with the following words:
Tell me your story, I said,
In the innocence of
A child at bedtime.
And the tale that
Emerged on the lips
Of the suffering
Told the story
That created the world
Stories, as Hans-Georg
Gadamer reminded us, create worlds. They also help to create peace among people
of different worlds. The next time I’m tempted to argue, I think I will respond
with a genuine, “Tell me your story.”
Grace, peace, and love,
Mark
