The Power Of A Storyteller?

Early storytellers told of great encounters that they had by painting pictures on cave walls or rocks.

When did storytelling begin? Perhaps early man found that he could vocalize with series of sounds that became a crude sentence and languages were created. There are thousands of different languages and dialects in the world today and each began as a storytelling to communicate and pass on to others.

Perhaps early storytellers told of encounters that they had with animals and other tribes and what they did not understand they rationalized with a fabricated story. These stories were passed on from generation to generation and in doing so created great myths, superstitions, morals, traditions, laws and religions.

Storytelling brought with it the power of imagination. Our brain was stimulated when we embellished these stories and events, deeds, ideas, etc.

A storyteller soon realized that they could influence other to do their bidding, either good or bad.

Homer's great epics created stories long before the Greeks developed a credible, lasting alphabet.  Now they have become the textbooks in our schools and the cornerstone of western literature. 

Yet, there is a great joy of creating stories, or poems,singing, reading or listening to these stories.  When we read or listen to a story we instantly form a mental images of the characters and actions in our mind.  We can "visualize" in our mind that person of what they look like or even sound like.  The places become real and we travel all over the world with our imaginations. 

Nearly everyone has a story to tell, about our family, friends or those that we love as we sat around a campfire and again let our imagination carry us beyond the glow of the fire light.

Many forms of entertainment today are interactive; for all the images and sounds are provided and no imagination is required.  Storytelling can be both positive and negative.  Storytelling is used in every conceivable way to influence and motivate and dominate people.  Today's television and other media is a good example of how easily positive and negative effects can be told through the storytelling of a movie or a song.   When it is repeated over and over it somehow becomes the---NORM for our young and others.

A large percentage of our young are able to accept or reject these messages that they see daily but---many are not.

I was one of the fortunate ones, as I have mentioned before in previous Hubs, my Cajun Grandfather who could neither read or write taught me many life lessons with the only tool he had---Storytelling!

The technology that is out there today for us to draw on is fantastic and we all enjoy it.  Maybe we should look at it more wisely as a tool.  "You have to have the right tool for the right job."

I thank---HubPages for they have given us all a great platform to build and use these tools on.

THE POWER OF STORYTELLING CAN BE A POWERFUL TOOL---USE IT WISELY.