Friday 29 May 2015

Storytelling

We had a fun evening at TABLEtalk this week looking at the power of storytelling.  Storytelling is truly an art form (one I wish I possessed)
In many cultures and for many centuries storytelling has been used to entertain, to teach, to convey history, to preserve cultural traditions and to inspire.  The Bible is full of stories (parables) which Jesus used to convey truth.  
Whilst stories are used to convey truth, they are also filled with legends and super-heroes.
I don't have space here to reproduce our five stories in full, but here is a precis ...

Once upon a time there was a rich man called Must Have who was very greedy, ruthless and cruel. All he wanted was more and more! When Must Have saw a picture of a planet made of gold he dedicated his life to reaching that place. He stopped caring for his wife and children and began building his spaceship. He invested all his money into this project but when he decided to test the ship  ...  it exploded!!! His project failed, his wife kicked him out of the house and he ended up on the streets looking for help. After some useless days of wandering around Must Have realised it was himself that needed fixing not the spaceship. What he really needed was his family, not money or treasures :-)

The name's McBond, Jimmy McBond! Jimmy's aim was to find and capture Mr Baked Bean, a drug dealer who has escaped to Scotland and can be found outside a local hotel each morning at 1am.  Jimmy McBond's disguise was a unique one consisting of a bullet-proof helmet, a camera hidden in his bagpipes, a cape that enabled him to fly; and don't be fooled by his uni-cycle which infact is equipped with a sportscar engine.  The day finally came when Jimmy went after Mr Baked Bean and despite shots being fired Baked Bean was brought to justice and jailed for all his crimes.

Rocky was a gangster who killed people and stole sweets from little children - he was not a nice man. He also had a passion for boxing and one day decided to steal the Championship boxing trophy. However he was caught by other boxers who started to beat him and break his bones. When Rocky told the other boxers about his passion for the sport they felt sorry for him. A few months later he was training to be a professional boxer and soon found himself back in the stadium, this time competing in the Championship.  He won the trophy and no more lived the life of a thug.

This is the story of a big fat naked guy who was often drunk and always fighting with his neighbours. When they saw him in the street his neighbours would run back to their houses in fear. One day a small guy was walking through town and couldn't understand why no-one else was around; then he saw the big fat naked guy coming towards him. The giant hulk grabbed him, striped off his clothes and beat him till he blacked out. But whilst he was unconscious the little guy saw a beautiful woman, the girl of his dreams, being chased by the big fat naked guy. When he woke he was suddenly charged with super-powers, he beat the big fat naked guy and all the neighbours lived happily ever after.

This is Melon-Man, the Healthy Super-Hero, whose single goal in life was to save people from the curse of junk food.  He decided to use his favourite food (melons, just incase you hadn't guessed) to battle against the evils of junk food.
His mantra was, "Eat melon or be meloned!!"  One day at the Dickens' Festival he saw some men eating donuts and fries.  He challenged them but they would not listen. Melon-Man was so outraged he loaded up his melon bazooka and let them have it!  Down they all went; Melon-Man had fulfilled his duty.

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