Feeling Lost? Let's Make it Worse.
Writing, reading, speaking, and even listening to stories is therapeutic and has the power to put the overworked human brain at ease. Storytelling makes us feel comfortable, right at home. Just like how one writes things down to remember or memorize, one can do this to also reflect and dig deeper into the human psyche—our minds. Being open to wanting to expand our understanding of ourselves is necessary for human growth. Where would we be without some of life’s most daunting questions: Who am I? What is my purpose? How much of my person is based on my purpose? And where would we be without some of the most daring theories proposed by say Walker Percy, Abraham Heschel, and Plato? Not all of these thoughts and stories were passed down on paper, but through word of mouth. Although some of these, dare I say all of these, are not answered, these essential questions and answers have been brought to our attention through a form of storytelling with the purpose of self-betterment.
Why [is it] that [out] of all the billions and billions of strange objects in the Cosmos—novas, quasars, pulsars, black holes—[the human self is] beyond doubt the strangest”? (Percy 1). Why is it that I have spent my whole life with myself, and I still do not know everything about myself? Who am I? As a species, humans are innately curious and have a need for closure—to seek answers for what they do not know or understand. As a result, knowledge is fuel for humankind, but unfortunately, much of that knowledge is not self-based; it is outside of the self. There are certain aspects of life that one can know completely—things that are finite. For instance, a person can grasp all that there is to know about a pencil; it is a tool to help people record their thoughts, share ideas, and provide a tangible record of human’s musings. An individual can learn about how pencils are made as well as the names of companies that sell them. At the end of the day, an inquiring person can find out all there is to know about a pencil. However, this is not the case when an individual tries to embrace and then understand the human self. Man’s journey to know thyself has a long history.
We can start with Plato: a more than logical person who was blessed with strong problem solving skills. He applied these skills to his take on storytelling through one of his most famous works, the Republic. Implicit in his views was that government was essential for a valid functioning social system. To this end, he felt that in order for a social system to be high functioning, it was necessary for people to be employed in areas of their strength. Socrates believed individuals working in their areas of strength helped keep a balanced and just society. This reminds us of the question: Are humans more than their purpose?
Consider Walker Percy and his self-help book, Lost in the Cosmos. Percy’s goal with the self-help book is to give its readers categories for them to fit in. But what happens if a person seems to fit into more than one of Percy’s categories or does not fit in any? People may know the category they fit into but they do not necessarily know what it means. An example that Percy uses is people trying to fit into a zodiac symbol description. Even Percy understands that a self-help book can only do so much help.
Not like it matters but here is my "Big 3": Virgo sun, Virgo moon, and Sagittarius rising (ascendant).
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| Photo by Cafe Astrology Virgo Daily Horoscope |
Percy explains that “[t]he role-taking self [which] is…[a] self [who] achieves its identity by taking roles and modeling its own role from the roles of others” (Percy 11). This idea causes people to wonder if they are ever their true self or if they are just modeling someone else to whom they look up to. Since people tend to question what they think is their identity, they are unsure about anything in relation to who they are. Percy calls this “[t]he lost self. [The lost self is] imprisoned by its own freedom, yet imprisoned by a curious and paradoxical bondage like a Chinese handcuff” (Percy 12); the more people try to know about themselves, the less they end up knowing. But yet again, storytelling makes us feel more comfortable.
Still Feeling Lost? Let's Make it Better Now.
I am going to assume that I am one of the lucky few who has had the opportunity to read this book. After finishing it, Percy makes it clear to his audience that one cannot push themself into a category and call it self-actualization. But then I thought, why did he even bother writing the book, the literal self-help book, which to define loosely: a self-help book’s sole purpose is to make someone figure out where they belong in the world. It is an odd paradox.
A link to put you more at ease:
Although people are able to learn about things that are thousands of lightyears away, the reality is that they know very little about humanity and themselves, even though they have known their singular self for as long as they have existed. The more knowledge mankind has about their surroundings, the less people actually get to know about themselves. Sometimes individuals are too busy analyzing their surroundings and deciding—consciously or unconsciously—how their physical environment makes them feel, rather than looking inward—being introspective—and focusing on what is needed for personal growth. But again, why is it that when I write about my day and reacting to my own emotions about the day in a journal makes me feel more at home?
After taking an alarming amount of humanities courses in undergrad, considering it was my major, I was able to come to terms with fully never knowing myself. I am reminded why I will never agree with the term: mastery, because there is always room for improvement or embellishment. Much like how these fathers of philosophy tell me that it is virtually impossible to know my full self. Through forms of storytelling I am able to reflect and improve the next day. Storytelling about the human self sets us up for success as it allows us to play a major role in leaving the world better than we found it.
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| Photo by Geunbae Lee via medium.muz.li |
According to Abraham Heschel, the author of Who Is Man, people only know “[s]ome definitions of man” (Heschel 18). Man may think he “...knows that something is meant by what he is, by what he does, but he remains perplexed when called upon to interpret his own being” (Heschel 6). Humans are complex, social miracles who—are still to this day—are nearly impossible to crack. The reality of just who a person is, is dynamic and thus continually in a state of change. Imagine a snake that sloughs off its old skin as it outgrows it. This analogy embraces people’s process of coming to know thyself. Once the old skin is discarded, people continue—to a greater or lesser degree—on their journey towards personal self-awareness. This journey is guided by what a person thinks is his purpose in life and by how successfully he believes he can accomplish this purpose. Heschel describes man having a purpose in this world, and it is man’s job to find out “[w]hat [he is] here for [and] [w]hat is at stake in [his] existence…” (Heschel 10). When confused, one can either look to others for advice or look inward, both of which are great options. Humans are not passive by nature. We crave knowledge and by writing our thoughts down, speaking on them, or listening to others helps us quench that thirst for self-discovery.
Take action and get to know thyself!
Citations
Heschel, Abraham Joshua. Who Is Man? Stanford University Press, 2005.
Lee, Shannon. “What Bruce Lee Can Teach Us about Living Fully.” TED, June 2019,
www.ted.com/talks/shannon_lee_what_bruce_lee_can_teach_us_about_living_fully#t-25
5468.
Percy, Walker. Lost in the Cosmos: the Last Self-Help Book. Picador, 2000.
Plato, and C. D. C. Reeve. Republic. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publ., 1992. Print.
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ReplyDeleteAs an undergrad student I minored in philosophy. While I loved these classes it has been years since I really thought about philosophy in an academic setting. I loved reading your article and reopening a lot of those conversations I had with myself as a younger student. I think that taking those self reflective moments here and there allows us to grow as a person. Even if there are no answers to the questions we ask ourselves just thinking about them can help us attain self actualization. I also loved the tie in to Bruce Lee as introduced by his daughter. As a kid I loved Bruce Lee. While watching an interview with him I heard a quote that stuck with me for the last 30 years. I will try my best to paraphrase it here. His philosophy was that a man should be like water. We try to be like steel and be strong but steel brakes when faced with enough pressure. Water does not. Water changes form when the pressure is to much. Water takes the shape of it's container. Water adapts and flows. Bruce Lee tried to be like water. This is an incredible change in mindset when thinking of this in terms of understanding one's self. We are not concrete in our personalities or as individuals and often become frustrated when we try to adhere to this. As individuals we change like the tide. Always moving and rippling, hopefully growing but always changing. When we can embrace the nature of water as our philosophy for life we can assure that we don't become static and blind to the changes we need to make in order to be happy and successful in both our personal and private lives. This makes us better people and better teachers who can hopefully impart this onto our students.
ReplyDelete-Bob Matarazzo
Hello Chaisen,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this blog post! I love the idea of telling our story as a form of self-discovery. It's crazy to think that while we are all experts on ourselves, there is so much about ourselves that we do not know. I believe we can learn more by telling stories.
The stories we tell don't have to be about things that happen in our lives. This week we watched a storytelling module by Pixar on Khan Academy. In one of the first videos, we are told that we write what we know, even when writing about universes where toys or cars or robots are alive. Regardless of whether or not a story is about something that actually happened in our lives, there are pieces of us in every story we tell.
I see this most in my Dungeons and Dragons characters. I started playing D&D my freshman year of college and have been an avid player ever since. I love creating characters and playing as them in fantastical worlds. One of the things that struck me was how much of myself was in each of my characters. Different characters held different parts of me, but I was present in all of them. Even when I purposely tried to make a character that was as unlike myself as I could think of, I still found myself in them.
In telling these made-up stories through the eyes of made-up characters, I discovered more about myself. One of the biggest moments of this was at the height of my anxiety and depression. I realized that try as I might, I couldn't keep my anxiety and depression out of my characters. I was deeply ashamed of this. Why couldn't I make the separation? Was it because I was feeling these things so strongly, and I couldn't separate them from my characters? Why did I want to separate my characters from this part of me? Was I trying to separate myself from the feelings as well? Was I trying to escape the feelings, rather than face them? And why was I so ashamed? I felt like I was a burden to others in the game. Did I see myself as a burden to others in real life?
As I worked to answer these questions, I learned more about myself. And I would not have asked myself these questions had I not been able to explore my emotions through the context of a story. I highly recommend storytelling in any form as a means to further understanding oneself. Thank you again for your thought provoking post.
Best,
Kate
It is definitely interesting to think about how we can never fully know ourselves, as we are constantly growing and changing in all different directions. I loved the analogy you used that compares the process of getting to know yourself to a snake shedding it’s skin. I personally can relate to that feeling. When I think back to what I thought I knew about myself years ago, it seems like I was so far off. However, at the time I felt like I was on the right track. We are constantly working towards an end goal, but the reality is that we’ll never get there; there will always be new things to learn, experiences to have, and people to meet.
ReplyDeleteWith all of this in mind, self reflection is a key component to ensure that we continue to move forward on our journeys of personal growth and fulfillment. You said it so well by saying, “Through forms of storytelling I am able to reflect and improve the next day. Storytelling about the human self sets us up for success as it allows us to play a major role in leaving the world better than we found it.” I agree that storytelling is a great tool to promote self reflection and improvement, and it can be used as a SEL strategy with students as well.
-Colleen Konkol
This is a very interesting topic and approach to the idea of story telling. To me, it's upsetting to think about how we will never fully know ourselves. As soon as we think we have an idea something or someone changes the way we think or what we do.
ReplyDeleteIncreasing the amount of self reflection one does, may impact how much one knows about themselves. I think we can learn a lot from that if we take the time to do so.
Only you, yourself, can tell your story because we know it best. No one else knows what is going through your head every moment of the day. I sometime wish there was someone else who had an idea, but then there are other times when I am very glad no one knows what I am thinking.
So how can we help ourselves to discover more about our own stories? Should we be telling/ helping students to understand the importance of finding self worth? It might help them to identify what they like to read or write about.
There is a lot to think about within this idea/ thought. Thank you for delving into this and sharing your thoughts.
Great post and extremely interesting! I love how this idea is connected to storytelling and the way you articulate this within your post. I can definitely see how we never really will truly know ourselves and I really do think that is because we are constantly changing. If I reflect back on my previous self I can see the ways that I have changed as a person and if I reflect right now I can even tell that I am still changing. I strongly believe in the importance of self reflection and agree that this is where stories can be helpful to achieve that self reflection. In order to grow as a person, I think it is important to do some self reflection and recognize possible changes that could or need to be made. I always find it challenging in the classroom whenever you have students complete an activity that focuses solely on themselves. I think part of the reason is because self reflection and focusing on yourself is sometimes not implemented enough into the classroom. I think as educators it is extremely important to understand the need for self reflection within the classroom and to teach students to be reflective thinkers is crucial. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Chaisen,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your thoughts in this post! I've enjoyed reading the comments above as well, about the importance of being reflective and how to help our students discover this quality within themselves. What stuck with me most was your comment about journaling as a way to connect with ourselves and reflect - I have been an on and off journal-er for years, and recognize a deeper connection to myself when I make time for the practice. It helps me feel more balanced and able to engage with others - especially being on the more introverted side of things, it can be difficult to share openly if I have not made the time to think things through myself first.
What Bob shared about the Bruce Lee quote he remembered, try to be like water, really resonated. When I think about this year for educators, students and families (and really anyone), this is a mindset that is helpful. Embracing this mindset means being reflective, flexible and gracious, "soft" skills that truly help us navigate life's ups and downs. Giving the chance to explore these qualities in both stories that we read, write and share is an opportunity for students to explore what and how to be more reflective in their lives.
Hi Chaisen,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this blog post. It was an interesting read. I will be the first to admit I never liked philosophy and probably never will. I never understood why these people had to be so out there when discussing the answers of the universe. How many times does Nietzsche say the key to life is suffering and the only way to live life is to accept that suffering? Why can't he just say that instead of saying life has a lot of suffering and we have to accept that?
I realize now that we may need to look at philosophy not for the answers but how we come up with those answers. We need to understand how these authors think. Although we do analyze their answers a lot the process is more important. I think several people have already said this but this relates to what we see in the classroom a lot. I know my students understand how WWI started but I need to understand their thinking as to how they came up with the answer. This again relates to what we are learning about in class. As students explain how they got to their answers they are in themselves telling a story. But they take a different route and use actual examples and not life experiences.
This post was so interesting! You talked about a lot of points that I had never really put that much thought into before. I think reflecting and understanding the power of reflection is so important in how we grow as human beings. I feel as though I didn't really begin to self reflect in my daily life until a few years ago. And I think thats because it can be really hard to look inward sometimes and be faced with our flaws head on, but it's the only way we can truly learn about ourselves on a deeper level. I also think it is important to instill the idea of reflection in our students not only on an academic level, but also for social/ emotional purposes. Taking a few moments out of the day to do this can be very helpful in students understand the role they play in their education and in their relationships with other people. I would do this in my classroom with journals. Again, this was so interesting. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDelete-Grace
Hi Chaisen,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this blog post! You highlighted how important self-reflection can be, and how storytelling can be intertwined into that concept. Understanding ourselves is so important, especially if we want to keep growing and learning. This is important both in our everyday lives, and in our careers as educators. Your blog post demonstrated how teaching self-reflection skills to our students is necessary for them to take some level of responsibility in their learning and development. All of these points seem to support the idea of growth mindset; learning is a lifelong process as is self-reflection. Thank you again for sharing!
-Shawna Zeisner
Hi Chaisen,
ReplyDeleteI found your post to be very interesting and dare I say, enlightening! This past year I have tried to take on writing in my journal every morning and night, which has lines for gratitude, goals, and words of affirmation. I have found that when I stick to it throughout the week, I do feel much better. It's interesting to see what we find important to write down and reflect on, while also using that knowledge to better understand ourselves.
Hi Chaisen!
ReplyDeleteThis post was a very interesting approach to storytelling through therapy. This was very well constructed and really got me to think about the overall mental health benefits of not only listening to reading but also listening to stories. I have always liked listening to audiobooks when I have a moment to listening because it puts my mind at ease and allows be to relax. This can also be very effective for students as well, especially if a student it having a bad day. It allows the to reset their mind which can be very helpful for learning.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing topic you wrote about. It was very interesting to read your blog! I think it truly takes a lot to find who you are, and trying to fit a certain mold isn't always possible for everyone. I love how you chose to highlight that the ability to tell our stories can put our overworked minds at ease. It was a wonderful way to introduce your topic, as well as allow your reader to connect with the post. The book you mentioned sounds like a great read, and I plan on giving it a try! Great work on your post. Thank you for sharing!
Ali Lombard