Individually and collectively, stories help us make sense of our past and understand possible futures (Sole and Wilson, 1999). Stories are about connection, compassion and giving meaning to otherwise messy lives (CNS Creative Factory, 2015). Storytelling takes hard work, and starts with listening carefully. It also involves surveying the environment around us.
In looking for a decent example about how storytelling spreads knowledge, I found a video promoting a conference that gathers top speakers and award winning storytellers to show the potential of stories in communication, education and transformation. In the advertisement for "The Power of Storytelling," the creators use the story of a fly to tell of a need for humans to incite change through storytelling. Everyone hates flies, but their existence far precedes our own. However, they do not live nearly as long as we do - an average of 60 days - so their individual impact is relatively small. They live life as individuals, joining only to mate and pass. There is a subtle question therein: How many of us are living life in such a manner? Then there is one fly who wishes to live her life differently. Instead of simply being a fly on the wall, she wants to interact, share experiences, and avoid the ill-fated death of the inevitable swatter; this is a downfall of communication through generations of ancestors. We wonder: Is she capable of changing the ways of her species, or will she die under the same circumstances of those before her? This story really resonated with me, and became the springboard for finding a story in my life that begs the same question.
American novelist Thomas Wolfe defined the American Dream as, "…to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity ….the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him." My account is a discussion of how different the story of America is on paper is to actually living the American experience, a critique of the reality of this Constitutional freedom. America has never truly fulfilled these ideal qualities; it is a place full of disenfranchisement and limitations. I wrote this after entering my second year of undergraduate work and realizing how many of my childhood friends in Philadelphia would never have (or believe they had) the experience of pursuing a degree. I did not feel lucky; I felt that my friends were robbed of a promise of opportunity. Not only do I tell the story of my experience as an example of these conditions, but also of the events that occurred to families across America as a result of those in power abusing their positions and maintaining inequality and injustice.
American novelist Thomas Wolfe defined the American Dream as, "…to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity ….the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him." My account is a discussion of how different the story of America is on paper is to actually living the American experience, a critique of the reality of this Constitutional freedom. America has never truly fulfilled these ideal qualities; it is a place full of disenfranchisement and limitations. I wrote this after entering my second year of undergraduate work and realizing how many of my childhood friends in Philadelphia would never have (or believe they had) the experience of pursuing a degree. I did not feel lucky; I felt that my friends were robbed of a promise of opportunity. Not only do I tell the story of my experience as an example of these conditions, but also of the events that occurred to families across America as a result of those in power abusing their positions and maintaining inequality and injustice.
American Dream
I never lived the American Dream
In a studio apartment, with a family of four
Floors as beds for a while, living meagerly
But it was all the same to me.
I’m talkin’ bout, ONE room
That tripled as the living, dining, and bedroom
With a kitchen and bathroom on the sides
And when you opened the four locks on the front door
You could see every worldly possession we had.
Monopoly money paid for food until mom decided
It was better to suffer than to be called a waste
And fill out welfare forms that demanded your race
When you fought for your country right after graduation
And still you cannot find a satisfying occupation.
Veteran or not, a n-word is what they see
So for years and years I kissed the ass of poverty
Now everyone wants to claim we’re in a damn recession
I guess I was the only one who grew up in depression
People makin’ half a mill need a lifeline,
And mom ain’t made half that in her lifetime
Something’s wrong, but I still stay strong
For her and my future, so yes I am pissed
When our government pisses her taxes away
To pay for shit cars made by Chevrolet
Then calls me un-American for taking Honda’s side
But I’m the only person in my whole damn fam who got a ride.
So I can’t afford a Ford and or GMC
While blue-collar workers are laid off with mouths to feed.
But I guess it’s a recession
But to my recollection, Good Will was this sweet guy my mom dated
Who use to buy me new clothes
New to me, but never new, but I never knew
I was living the Depression
Long before Gore ran for president, and a mixed man was the resident
Of that big white bank in Washington, D.C.
Concessions were never made for me when I ran out of money
What I had was all I had until the next payment came
From a side job I claimed at 12 years old
Illegal but it helped pay for the gas and the electric
Mom suspected something was up but gave no lip
Philly then was like Afghanistan without the long trip
Do what you do to survive, and I’m still alive
But seriously, back to this American Dream that went unfulfilled
I question why people would risk their lives trying to get into
The imprisonment of wishes that the USA jizzes on the face of the workers
The workers who wipe their brow with their disappointment
And hang it in with the unions, but big biz doesn’t get down
With the union folk, who only joke of better benefits
And get their jobs handed over quick to
Some third world country where people work for a dime
And we wonder why, we’re in this recession
Soon to be Depression
But it’s all the same to me.
I never lived the American Dream.
When I wrote this a few years ago, it was out of inspiration to tell my story in a way that would be interesting and impactful in a terse manner. Poetry has always been my outlet in expressing personal experience without harping on details that would either be lost on anyone who had never experienced a similar upbringing, or would be met with disbelief. It allows for a micro episode to be juxtaposed with a macro problem through then-current events that most are familiar with (for example, the auto industry bailout of GM, Ford and Chrysler cost $80 billion but moved more than half of their payroll out of the country). My goal in this story was to talk about how impoverished people are in one of the world's wealthiest countries, and to those who the government recently turned its back on to realize that they have not been forgotten by those who have been in the trenches much longer than they have. It is a call to action in showing that as the middle class falls into an economic pit, they are welcomed to join the fight alongside those they have always seen themselves as better than (Searcey, 2015).
To pay for shit cars made by Chevrolet
Then calls me un-American for taking Honda’s side
But I’m the only person in my whole damn fam who got a ride.
So I can’t afford a Ford and or GMC
While blue-collar workers are laid off with mouths to feed.
But I guess it’s a recession
But to my recollection, Good Will was this sweet guy my mom dated
Who use to buy me new clothes
New to me, but never new, but I never knew
I was living the Depression
Long before Gore ran for president, and a mixed man was the resident
Of that big white bank in Washington, D.C.
Concessions were never made for me when I ran out of money
What I had was all I had until the next payment came
From a side job I claimed at 12 years old
Illegal but it helped pay for the gas and the electric
Mom suspected something was up but gave no lip
Philly then was like Afghanistan without the long trip
Do what you do to survive, and I’m still alive
But seriously, back to this American Dream that went unfulfilled
I question why people would risk their lives trying to get into
The imprisonment of wishes that the USA jizzes on the face of the workers
The workers who wipe their brow with their disappointment
And hang it in with the unions, but big biz doesn’t get down
With the union folk, who only joke of better benefits
And get their jobs handed over quick to
Some third world country where people work for a dime
And we wonder why, we’re in this recession
Soon to be Depression
But it’s all the same to me.
I never lived the American Dream.
When I wrote this a few years ago, it was out of inspiration to tell my story in a way that would be interesting and impactful in a terse manner. Poetry has always been my outlet in expressing personal experience without harping on details that would either be lost on anyone who had never experienced a similar upbringing, or would be met with disbelief. It allows for a micro episode to be juxtaposed with a macro problem through then-current events that most are familiar with (for example, the auto industry bailout of GM, Ford and Chrysler cost $80 billion but moved more than half of their payroll out of the country). My goal in this story was to talk about how impoverished people are in one of the world's wealthiest countries, and to those who the government recently turned its back on to realize that they have not been forgotten by those who have been in the trenches much longer than they have. It is a call to action in showing that as the middle class falls into an economic pit, they are welcomed to join the fight alongside those they have always seen themselves as better than (Searcey, 2015).
Nancy Duarte (2010) touches on this need for collective action in her TEDx talk, The Secret Structure of Great Talks; we all have big dream, and it will involve more than ourselves to see them come to fruition. However, it can be easy to leave one's idea aside and settle for the norm. The norm is comfortable; we are creatures of habit, and we'd rather say "it is what it is" than to shout for change and be chastised (WomensMedia, 2013). We are convinced past leaders - the Xs, Kings, Anthonys and Milks - will reappear and save us. Why do we not realize that we need to save ourselves?
 |
| When sports agent Jerry McGuire was fired from his job for spreading a manifesto for change, only one of his coworkers is brave enough to move forward with him in his new enterprise. |
As the wayward fly teaches, we have the power to save others from tragedy. Though through our existence, we may be seen as bothersome, but our time is short to abolish the generational suffering of our people. Telling stories not only builds and incites action in communities, but finds others in similar conditions. Therefore through listening, structuring, sharing and connecting our stories (CNS Creative Factory, 2015), we can build our army to fight for the betterment of our collective, locally and nationally.
References
CNS Creative Factory. (2015). Fly Off the Wall. Accessed at https://www.behance.net/gallery/24618357/The-Power-of-Storytelling-Fly-Off-the-Wall\
Duarte, Nancy. (2010). The secret structure of great talks. TEDx. Accessed at http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks
Hughes, L. (2004). Let America be America again and other poems (1st Vintage Books ed.). New York: Vintage Books.
Searcey, D. (2015). Middle Class Shrinks Further as More Fall Out Instead of Climbing Up. The New York Times. Accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/business/economy/middle-class-shrinks-further-as-more-fall-out-instead-of-climbing-up.html?_r=0
Sole, Deborah; Wilson, Daniel Gray. (1999). Training and Development, vol. 53, pp. 44-52. Accessed at http://www.providersedge.com/docs/km_articles/Storytelling_in_Organizations.pdf
WomensMedia. (2013). Why We're So Afraid of Change -- And Why That Holds Businesses Back. Forbes. Accessed at http://www.forbes.com/sites/womensmedia/2013/04/08/why-were-so-afraid-of- change-and-why-that-holds-businesses-back/
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