in BETTER: Waking Up to Who We Could Be, i introduce the COMPOST Method of storytelling. i use the fancy title “COMPOST Method” as a marketing ploy to entice professors into using the book for a class or two. what i’m really talking about is that the best stories grow out of what for me are certain spiritual practices. COMPOST is just a nifty acronym to help me remember them.
the best stories…
Confess more that proscribe.
acknowledge Opposing forces in dynamic with each other.
have the Meekness to admit other interpretations–even in the midst of tell the story.
Pose questions more than answers.
nurture Others-interestedness.
choose Susceptibility to harm.
treat Tradition as a living word–a bell that is ringing, not a bell that has rung.
the thing that the more common stories of ugliness and inequity have over stories that COMPOST is that they’ve been normalized. we’re used to them; so many of us think they are all there is. we can change that way of thinking, but we have to give them imagination for something better.
so on this 4th of july, whether your storytelling is verbal, photographic, or cinematic, rituals, relationships, or direct action campaigns, give it the power to change the world by starting it in the right stuff.