Fire and Story

  

Fire is the observable light and heat we humans perceive from difficult-to-observe chemical reactions among fuel and oxidants known as combustion.  Combustion results from a sequential process where fuels (like wood, charcoal, or paper) interact with oxidants and heat to become gaseous, expand, and combust into the heat and light we perceive [1].  

The simple system of combustion described above is an important part of a complex and adaptive Earth system in which naturally occurring and human-made fires influence and are influenced by climate, atmosphere, water composition, vegetation, topography, wildlife, and human experiences [2].  Indeed, a walk in any forest will reveal what fire has accomplished over eons.  

As an essential aid in the evolution of human society within the Earth system, fire is both a necessary ingredient and a constant threat to human existence.  The study of fire - how it forms, spreads, and can be managed – requires transdisciplinary knowledge from physics, chemistry, biology, and environmental and social sciences to minimize its threat.  These sciences reveal the challenging paradoxes embodied in fire.

Fire warms and fire burns.

Fire sheds light and fire obscures with smoke.

Fire creates and fire destroys.

Fire is not good or bad.  

Fire is.

And so it is with stories.

Like fires, stories start from the interaction of raw materials; ideas, words, storytellers and listeners.  At some critical point the interaction combusts into a flow of information that cascades through networks of storytellers and listeners.  A transdisciplinary group of complexity scientists has used forest fires as one model for understanding how stories cascade through groups, either maintaining intensity with positive reception from a listener, adapting based on subsequent transmission by the listener, or disappearing altogether without adequate reception from a listener [3].  

I have been learning from, paying attention to, and participating in the practice of highlighting stories for systems change that has received a lot of recent attention across the globe [4].   Much of this attention reflects a growing awareness of the limits of historic change efforts to bring about widespread human thriving as well as a strong desire for inclusive practices for generating meaningful, lasting benefit for all groups.  

There’s a kind of openness and optimism within the storytelling movement that is invigorating.  I would describe it as a shared energy that results from renewing our belief that we can do important things together when we emphasize our connectedness and strengthen our relationships.  While enjoying that energy, however, I can forget that storytelling is not a new movement.  Humanity has been telling stories for as long as humanity has been using fire.  And many of those stories are so familiar to us now, so embedded in our group identities and processes, that we don’t notice how they shape our world and us….. until we do.

Stories are not good or bad, stories just are.  Some are more persuasive than others for certain groups at certain times.  Some are more explanatory than others for certain groups at certain times.  Some align better with additional sources of information or moral and ethical positions than others for certain groups at certain times.  That is not to say that stories suggest a relativist nature of our existence.  I don’t think that stories necessarily lead to relativism.  Stories do, however, likely reveal the relational nature of our existence; that we are people connected within contexts, within time periods, whose limited understanding of a vast reality requires tools like stories to make sense of and act sensibly in an infinite time-space.  

And that is possibly why ‘controlling the narrative’ has become such an important objective in global politics.  Even the most well-read individual cannot attend to and comprehend all the information relevant to their situation in a global political environment.   We are using stories to pull digestible chunks of meaning from swathes of potentially meaningful information.   And, multiple actors are using stories to shape our beliefs about who and what are salient, who and what are worthy, and what can and should be done.  Themes related to salience, worth, and recommended action are essential focal points for persuasive storytelling and ultimately for controlling narratives.

Pay attention to the news you read, the podcasts you listen to, the conversations you participate in.  What stories are spreading, lasting, gaining in intensity?  Within those stories, who and what are getting emphasized as salient, worthy?  What actions are being recommended?  And, just as important, how does what is getting emphasized match with your core story – your core understanding of what it means to be human, what it means to live with other humans whose pursuits and well-being are just as important to them as yours are to you, and what it means to inherit a world from humans you didn’t know and contribute to a future for humans you will never know.   

I’ve taken a little break from writing this summer.  Instead, I’ve been traveling, engaging, and observing.  But after time away I feel motivated to write about ‘core stories.’  How can each of us become more aware of our core stories, more willing to communicate and act consistently from a clear understanding of our core stories, increasingly committed to identifying the big projects to undertake together based on a shared core story?  More soon!  

Sources:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combustion

[2] https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/special_issue430_1105.html

[3] Hébert-Dufresne, L., Lovato, J., Burgio, G., Gleeson, J. P., Redner, S., & Krapivsky, P. L. (2024). Self-reinforcing cascades: A spreading model for beliefs or products of varying intensity or quality. Physical Review of Letters. 

[4] https://centreforpublicimpact.org/resource-hub/storytelling-for-systems-change/