importance of stories. michelle slosser

I read Frederick Buechner’s The Magnificent Defeat a few times this semester, since it is only 144 pages long and packed full of great thoughts. Some chapters I liked better than others, a few even made my eyes well up with joy and awe, but some I just half read, not connecting to their meaning, since I am selfish and didn’t get any strong emotion from reading them. Then one day in class, when we were discussing sacred place as storied place, I recollected that in one of those “boring” chapters, Buechner wrote about stories and why they were so important to people. The first reason was that people are very curious, and very insistently want to know what will happen next. We will even read or watch stories over and over again, just for the fulfillment of seeing what happens, even if we already know. His second reason is just as insightful, saying that when authors put people and events into a story, they are given meaning, and a storyteller’s claim is that life has meaning. Buechner explains further by saying that stories mean a lot to people because they suggest that life’s actions “are leading us not just anywhere but somewhere.” If there is meaning in a character’s life, then there is meaning in our lives. And a story may just give us a clue to what our life’s meaning is. So is this what makes sacred place storied place? Because if it is storied, then is it full of meaning? And maybe is we stand in this storied place long enough, then we will find meaning. Or at least we will feel that there is meaning. I think many people long to just feel meaning, and they find it in heartbreakingly sad movies, or joining a “Save Darfur” facebook group, even though they will never do anything past that to save Darfur. I am not rebuking these actions, I am merely speculating on why people do things of that sort.
I don’t know why this chapter did not fascinate me until now, probably because I didn’t bother trying to understand how it related to me.