Storytelling in Media

The fifth guideline from symmentropy focuses on the many different media forms that make storytelling something for everyone with many different talents.

Fifth rule of nonlinear storytelling

Storytelling in words, pictures, dance, music and everything you can think of.

By Lee McGavin

Walking with my artist continuously surprises me. It should not. I know she views the world as a visual cornucopia. Every rock, twig and blade of grass presents her with an opportunity to express her feelings. Subtleties of color and texture send her in flights of fancy. A ten minute walk can produce a basket of potential sculpture. Walking with her separates us by how we think and tell our stories. Our brains march to drummers from different orchestras. Hers throbs with color and shape, while mine beats steady rhythm of function and text. When we share our experience, we translate our reactions into stories that we can both understand. Our process is fundamentally human. Prehistoric cave paintings remind us that an essential element of humanity expresses itself through many different forms, but always returns the desire to share life.

The fifth guideline for symmentropy recognizes the human need to express ideas in a variety of forms, each with its own storytelling strengths and weaknesses. From dance to architecture, our dreams and nightmares tell the themes of the human condition. Each of us begins to recognize what form we prefer for expressing our stories. Some call it a talent and some, like my artist, call themselves “visual thinkers”. No matter what name we use, it impacts our relationships as our comfort with different story subjects derives from the skills that we employ to move our feelings into easily shared stories. A story that makes us uncomfortable in pictures, can bring us delight if we read as it text. We each have levels of storytelling capability that we learn to use.

Symmentropy in Small, Fuzzy Doses

This fourth small dose of Symmentropy works like a steroid. It will make you feel fuzzy, then better, but there may be some unpredictable side effects. We have to discuss fuzzy logic before more non linear storytelling.

Fourth guideline to nonlinear storytelling

Fuzzy rules for turning thoughts into stories.

By Lee McGavin
In the stories that explain the the fourth guideline of symmentropy the one consistent element is fuzziness. Not the fuzziness of a peach or favorite teddy bear, but the soft focus that our mental lenses give to definitions. The first guideline provides the need for stories to explain complex ideas and provide meaning for experiences. The fourth guideline shows how we reduce intricate patterns to stories that explain the meaning we develop from our adventures. The human brain has an amazing capacity for making sense out of very complicated choices. We make decisions every waking hour that defy our ability to explain how we arrived at a conclusion.

You have probably played “20 Questions” or some derivative of the game. You are trying to guess a secret identity by asking questions that can only be answered with yes or no. Your first question might have been “Is this person alive?” This question creates two groups of people, the living and the formerly living. These are nice binary choices with simple solutions. Then you ask, “Is this person an actor?” The response should be yes for Denzel Washington, but what about Orah Winfrey, Steve Van Zandt and Clint Eastwood? The edges of the group need to be a little bit flexible when we consider people who have been successful in more than field. Instead of a yes or no response, we consider the available stories to come up with an answer that is the best fit. Beginning with games that children can play easily, we develop a clear understanding of groups that have fuzzy edges that require us to make fuzzy choices.

Seven Directions Dealing With Dementia

Symmentropy's fourth guideline has four sets of stories that show the need for fuzziness in the rules we make about turning our ideas into stories.

Fourth rule of nonlinear storytelling

Rules for turning thoughts into stories.

By Lee McGavin

Dementia carries many different meanings for the adult children of Peary Street. Each of us had very different experiences interfering with the fuzzy rules applied by neurologists. While we did not need to have a clinical description of our mother's changes, we struggled to find a thread that could unite our thoughts and concerns for her future. We were unable to share the stories that could have explained our very different definitions of what dementia meant in practical terms.

The three oldest, the Big Kids, all had experienced the difficulties of dealing with dementia from a different aspect of the disease, so they could not tell the little kids a unified story. The little brothers may have had some experience to guide their thinking, but because they followed the household rule of “no storytelling”, they could only allow the older brother to talk about legal issues. The little sisters, the older of the four Little Kids, stepped into this vacuum to define the interactions of the group for the remaining years of my mother's life. Their inability to resolve a balance of secrecy and sharing determined the course of all of our efforts.

The Fuzzy Reality of the Haupt Girls

Symmentropy's fourth guideline has four sets of stories that show the need for fuzziness in the rules we make about turning our ideas into stories.

Fourth rule of nonlinear storytelling

Rules for turning thoughts into stories.

By Lee McGavin
The last time I saw my grandmother, she was lying in bed talking to my grandfather and several of their friends who had been dead for 25 years or more. I cannot say that she knew who I was or even if I was there. Nothing in that room reminded me of the woman that taught me gambling or argued politics with me. When she died several weeks later, I was relieved.

The last time I saw my mother's oldest sister, we had lunch in the common area of her nursing home. We spent 15 minutes discussing who would pay for lunch and when the train would be stopping. She was also concerned that when we got off the train, we had to meet with my grandmother who was arriving from Europe 25 years after she died. When she died months later, I was relieved.

The last time I talked to my mother, most of the conversation had to do with where I lived. Six different times, she asked where I was living now. I had six opportunities to explain something different about the Texas hill country where I live. I did my best to mix in some of the puns that still delighted her. I wish I knew if she laughed when I did or if she really understood anything I was saying. When she died two weeks later, I was relieved.

The Jag'ed Edge of Peary Street

Symmentropy's fourth guideline has four sets of stories that show the need for fuzziness in the rules we make about turning our ideas into stories.

Fourth rule of nonlinear storytelling

Rules for turning thoughts into stories.

By Lee McGavin

April of 2008 began a new chapter for the seven children of Peary Street. One year before our father had pneumonia that turned to sepsis and the doctors prepared everyone for the worst. I guess he had unfinished business because, next morning he propped his eyes open and began to fight his way back to vertical. By late spring, he was back on the golf course getting lots of exercise because his diminished strength took quite a few swings to get to the green. His last days were about the things that he loved the most golf, puttering in his work shop and his grandchildren and great grandchildren. During those last months, he would head out in Jaguar XJS convertible, top down, whenever possible. He had that car for 15 years and never got close to 100,000 miles because our mother would not ride in it. When they went places together, they took her car.

Symmentropy in Small Doses: Page 3

This third dose of Symmentropy should be easier to swallow, no graphics or telephone engineers. It does start to bring in ideas of non linear storytelling, but only a little.

Third rule of nonlinear storytelling

Storytelling rarely produces the outcome we expect.

By Lee McGavin
The first time I said, “I can't be responsible for what your hear, only what I say” my artist launched into an assault on all of my nonlinear guidelines of telling stories. This one had gone too far! Think back and even before you went to school you probably heard one of your parents tell you that you were not listening. We are all taught that what we say means what we said and there is no possibility that if you hear the words, you can get it wrong. I know that the first time I heard, “You're not listening”, I knew that something was rotten in Denmark. I could not explain it when I was in grade school, but I was able to explain it to my artist, even if she has not bought into the idea just yet.

Shots Fired! Wild Horses to the Rescue!

This is the fifth in a series of posts that offer a caricature of the seven combatants that grew up on Peary Street. These brief sketches also point to the third guideline of symmentropy, the way people respond to what we say is rarely what we expect.

Third rule of nonlinear storytelling

Storytelling rarely produces the outcome we expect.

It could have been the first time in over 20 years that the seven children of Peary Street were in the same room at the same time. It could have been a time of warm greetings. It could have been a moment of shared grief. It could have been a lot things, a whole range of possibilities, but it turned into a meeting of a board of directors planning hostile takeovers.
Story Chip

Because I had not seen most of my siblings in over 20 years, my expectations were limited to getting to know who these people had become and giving them a chance to know me. I hoped that we would spend some time filling in the blanks. I hoped that we would share our stories and look to a future without our father. I hoped that the family I left behind had found a way to overcome their anger and resentments. I hoped that my brothers and sisters had some idea how important they were to the hurricane. Things could have turned out better. The first words made it clear that personal animosity still ruled Peary Street.