The World Of Trump And the World of Story Are Two Different Worlds

I got to considering the notion the other day that the world of Trump and the world of story are two different worlds. I wanted to share my thinking. But so far I am having a bit of a challenge, putting my thoughts into a coherent articulation. 

But I will give it a try here by way of communicating some and come back another time, if I have more on the subject.

I heard the other day, too, that contemplating might be understood to be a method of seeing. So, visionary that I am, I “contemplated” what I was seeing that brought this idea to  mind; "the world of Trump and the world of story are two different worlds." In considering this theme, no doubt, is another set of questions I have been pondering since New Horizons Storytelling Workshop Series began to get underway with a meeting last Saturday of our new Storytelling Steering Committee for our partnering with StoryCorps.

That meeting and the other start up projects we are now undertaking to get the whole of the project running has occupied my mind pretty constantly this week. Thus Trump and storytelling could not have been too far from it this week had I wanted them to be. Especially on Trump who thrives on every last bit of attention he can get. Thus one has to almost battle to keep him out of mind. So allow me to digress about my wondering about Trump and his world of storytelling, or lack thereof, and go to the other questions I was also thinking about this past week.

That set of questions has to do with a series Sue and I are designing for my first time of being interviewed for “The Official New Horizons Small "Zones Of Peace" Storytelling Collection" for our partnering with StoryCorps. When we have that storytelling interview completed – and – have learned to work with the technology involved, we hope to embed the story on this site with more to follow. If you participate in our story collecting, maybe your stories, too, might be shared, if you would like. On my end, it appears that I am going to have a whole series of these storytelling/interviews of my own to share!

Umm. What a nice way for me to come out of my hidey hole. I had been making myself as low profile as I could, over the years, as much as I could and still have an active presence behind New Horizons. Now I will be coming out  -- and – able to do that in the company of the many others from whom we will be collecting stories. 

I love the thought of it, as I had decided decades ago that I did not want to be too much in the public eye, except as a part of a community. And, now I have found my way to accomplish that through New Horizons' storytelling project. 

Lucky me!

Everyone at New Horizons is pretty excited about this next endeavor of ours, the Storytelling Workshop Series, which will be an important piece of our developing “The Official New Horizons Small "Zones Of Peace" Storytelling Collection,” but not the only one. What the other parts will be are yet to be discovered. Nonetheless, as we look at the gift of this single, new aspect of the New Horizons Small “Zones of Peace” Project, along with its assortment of other community building projects and programs, not only are we excited about it, but so is everyone else that we tell about it.

Why not?

As noted author, Father Richard Rohr suggests, regarding restoring connectedness –

"The greatest dis-ease facing humanity right now is our profound sense of disconnectedness - from God, ourselves, each other and the world." 

Rohr’s words strike a bullseye for me. They resonate like a beautiful, melodied song. Restoring (or establishing connectedness) is what storytelling is about; something our country is desperately in need of at this time.  At least, this is how I/we see things, presently. But then I have, over the years, become a devoted storyteller, as evidenced by my having both a blog site and a radio show titled Anastasia The Storyteller.

But from Trump’s world we hear no genuine, heartfelt stories. None, other than those that flatter his ego; many of them not even based on truth. Trump, in his dysfunction, has no concern with stories; yours or mine, not even his own, as in what is the "story" of his relationship with his mother?

We never, ever hear of her. Even searching for information on that endless resource for everything you ever wanted to know about anything, the internet, reveals almost nothing about Trump’s mother. It is almost as if she did not even exist.

P.S. the etiology of narcissistic personality disorder, which most educated people would agree appears to be Trump’s malady, is generally based on one’s relationship or lack thereof with parents, especially one’s mother.

The Mayo Clinic describes the roots of narcissistic personality disorder this way – 

As with other mental disorders, the cause is likely complex. Narcissistic personality disorder may be linked to mismatches in parent-child relationships with either excessive pampering or excessive criticism. Genetics or psychobiology — the connection between the brain and behavior and thinking -- may also play a part.

Oh well, so much for Trump’s world. In mine and hopefully yours too, I/we think storytelling is where it’s at, if connection with others matters. With that, I believe, that if coming from the heart, and seeking the heart of another counts, storytelling has more potential for helping us learn the truth of this old saying, than any other single activity  –

“An enemy is someone whose story you haven’t yet heard.”

I hope you love storytelling, too, for all the wonderful gifts it offers, particularly the idea that there is a great potential for turning enemies, or unknown others, into friends this way. Many of us have been doing way too much “othering” of people who are different from us, without much thoughtfulness, care or concern, particularly in recent past years, as the fallout from this last presidential election has shown us. 

I think it is time and way past to give that up.

New Horizons path and my own, personally, look to soon be reveling in this activity, storytelling, more and more as a part of our daily fare. 

I look forward to sharing the adventure with you.