RE:framing, Week 3
Week 3: The Stories We Tell
Skill: Talk with anyone
Tool: Storytelling
Reading: Thekaekara, “Social Justice and Social Entrepreneurship: Contradictory or Complementary?”; Fourcade and Healy, “Moral Views of Market Society.”
How long did it take you to “find your voice” downtown? Was it as you started to craft soul-searching portfolio questions? Did it happen when Anna Jordan identified what it means to have a voice? Did it come in your internship work? Or perhaps your reflective essays? Can you pinpoint the moment you found it? Are you still searching?
This week, the downtown students are searching for their personal “whys” so that they can tell stories about themselves. But not just any stories. Stories that access deep parts of themselves. Stories that capture their distinctive voices. Stories that are authentic.
One of the lessons I want to remind you of this week is that communication and community come from the same root word. We tell stories as part of tapping into what makes us human. We also tell stories to create a shared identity. We can’t forget that stories can inspire and motivate people to hear our ideas in ways that few other rhetorical strategies can. Humans are hard-wired for stories.
Weekly Questions
- Pay attention to stories this week in classes, in the DC, in your house or dorm, in your church. What kinds of stories are those around you telling and why? How are you receiving them? What kinds of stories are you telling and why? What do these stories say about where your heart is?
- Revisit the Lina Srivastava video about having humility and empathy when amplifying the stories of the global poor. How are you amplifying the voices of those without your access and privilege? What would it mean for you to do this? Where would you start?
Words for Reflection
“First you figure out what each one means by itself,
the jingle,
the periwinkle,
the scallop full of moonlight.
Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.”
-Mary Oliver
Extra Credit
Revisit your personal “why” that you wrote while you were downtown. (Remember that your “why” is your fuel for finding and discovering your purpose. It’s the question that you can’t stop asking and doesn’t have easy answers.) Does this still fit? Has it changed? Spend some time polishing, revising, or completely reworking your “why.” Grab someone from your cohort or another downtown alum so that you can trade your “whys” and give each other feedback.
