Our lives are governed by the stories that are told about who we are and the stories we tell about ourselves. The stories that are being told today by the mass media, politicians and marketers are leading us towards bleak futures of increasing inequality, exhausted resources, and climate change. We are in a narrative crisis.
But there is hope for a better future. There are alternative stories about what it is to live a meaningful life. Some of these stories have been half forgotten while others haven’t even been told yet. Fortunately, there are people tending the embers of these stories and breathing new life into them. It is my hope that some day soon these stories will burn bright enough to lead us towards a sustainable future.
Before we can restore the Earth, we must first begin the task of re-storying ourselves, our communities and the places where we dwell. To re-work a famous quotation from Muriel Rukeyser: The Earth is made of stories, not atoms. And the Earth is in dire need of better stories than we have been telling.
This website is my exploration of the re-storying that is being done today by storytellers, listeners, writers, readers, individuals, families and communities. It is my hope that these stories will inspire and thicken other ones, and that collectively we will open up many positive possibilities for living here on Earth.
