I've been following this discussion because I am fortunate enough to live
with harp list member Donna Coberly. This correspondence has so amazed and
delighted me that I have to express gratitude to Barra (Barbara G.
Jacob-McDowell) and all the correspondents.
Barra addressed a conflict of definitions with a story (her story, and well
told too:-). As I read her letter, all of the preceding discussion took on
greater meaning in the context of a human life. Stories are healing that way,
and I felt healing, myself, because the conflict area addressed (you might
say: creativity versus correctness) is one I own within. Thanks!
Like music, myth, and mathematics, stories can spin meaning over time and
show us the changes. Because of stories I've heard or stories I've lived, I
can understand how good intentions go bad, why love needs work; can better
try to understand my child, my spouse, myself.
When we need meaning to stand still, a definition will serve better than a
metaphor. But in the course of a life, metaphor can communicate what's
important better than a definition, and make you feel better besides. We are
fed somehow by the things that happen in stories, the humor, grief, paradox,
surprise, and grow bigger and able to see the unity in a disagreement or how
more than one "truth" can be "right".
Accepting the quirky worth of story and metaphor is useful, even when
exactness is sought, for metaphor is often dressed in fact's clothing. In its
bones, History is metaphor (i.e., a set of stories which begin, "I believe
(for very good reasons) that it happened like this ...").
'Nuff said. Guess it might be clear that I make my living as a psychiatrist,
and was ready for a healing touch myself. Incidentally, Barra, have you set
any of those stories to music?
Rob Coberly (mindspa@aol.com)