Welcome June: Spirit / Story / Social

“Stories are the secret reservoir of values: change the story individuals or nations live by and tell themselves and you change the individuals and nations.” 

~ Ben Okri

Dear Lab/Shul,

If you’ve been to even one Lab/Shul ritual program, you know that storytelling is one of the key ingredients of our spiritual, transformative work. Ben Okri’s words have long influenced our use of story as a driving force for societal shift. You’ve seen it woven into our monthly Sabbath Queens, in our High Holy Days Storahtelling ritual Torah readings, and at our rites of passage programming like Raising the Bar B Mitzvah Program. One of our veteran B Mitzvah trainers and Storahtelling Mavens, Amanda Miller, shares with us today how storytelling has informed her life and, in turn, impacts how she – as a gifted educator, healer, theater artist, and writer – works with our fortunate students. Amanda shares with us:

When I was seventeen my father died, two months after his cancer diagnosis. From that point on, I would come to learn about the healing and transformative power of storytelling. What began as a series of journal entries would become a graduate thesis, a memoir, and two versions of an interactive solo play. With each incarnation, the focus of the story shifted slightly. First, it was about a young person coping with grief. Then it was about the ways I identified with my father and my engagement in healing arts practices (massage and yoga) to avoid his self-destructive path. Then it was about spiritual seeking. And finally, it was about reckoning with cultural identity and lineage. As the story shapeshifted and evolved, there were readers, listeners, an audience—feedback. People would tell me about aspects of my story that resonated with their own, sharing experiences and feelings they rarely spoke about, and the healing they felt in that process. Since then, I have crafted numerous stories for stage and page and while they are not always autobiographical, they stem from the personal. I believe stories are what unite us, uplift us and move us to action. The more honest, personal and carefully crafted, the more impactful.

This ethos informs my work with [Raising the Bar] students. As we embark on the Storahtelling script writing process, my task is to help them uncover the part of the story that connects to something in which they have a personal stake. How does this ancient premise/ moment/ interaction/ conflict relate to something they are working through in their own lives? Together, we mine the text to illuminate characters and focus that most powerfully serve that element. Because if it matters to the student, then it will matter to others. It is in this way that their coming-of-age process has the potential to be a process of personal and collective transformation.

~Amanda Miller

With love,
Naomi Less,
Co-founder, Associate Director & Ritual Leader