Story

I am in tonight. All night. No patrols or meetings. Got a lot to catch up on, personal biz and pack matters.

At a recent pack meeting there was a bit of a stir when I dog tried to relate a story she heard from another pack. It was supposed to be funny. She almost nailed it. But not quite. She was given lots of claps and licks for her attempt.

Weres love movies and books, good stories of any medium. But we cannot create them or tell them. It is not in us. Many times I have watched weredogs and werewolves try to tell a story. It is even funnier to watch a were try to make up a story.

Some say it was story that saved mankind, allowed him to so rapidly develop, and prevail over all other species and predators. Stories allowed man to pass on knowledge and skills in a context that everyone could grasp. Story was the shot of adrenaline into mankind’s cognitive abilities. Learning the stories of other species drove mankind to dominance. Telling and hearing stories developed the human mastery of language and analysis.

Stories have carried all the great truths and traditions of mankind, all religions and cultures, every political ideology and empire. Each country and company has its own story, each product, each person.

The Bible seems to me a compelling collection of stories, as do all the other texts and books of all the other religions.

No other species gets story like humans. Even we weres do not fully understand it. We love story, and stories. Most weredogs read a lot, novels especially. But few weredogs can truly understand Don Delilo or James Joyce. Weredogs cannot write even bad stories. What I would give to write even a bad but coherent story.

Some truths are too big. Science cannot contain or convey them. Facts cannot carry them. They need metaphor and images to even begin to get at them. For those truths story is the only possibility understand and tell them.

A good story is a powerful tool. Many weres believe if we could learn to create and tell solid stories then we would finally be on par with mankind. I am not certain it is that simple.

Jack tells great stories, especially around camp fires and over beers. Sven and Rick tell good stories, and have written some real good stories in school, for classes. Story must run in the blood. Makes sense, since a good story makes the blood run.