Nothing conveys message better than story

Local columnist

link Clyde Davis

“Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives” is the theme for National Women’s History Month 2015. The theme presents the opportunity to weave women’s stories — individually and collectively — into the essential fabric of our nation’s history." (National Women's History Project website.)

The power and reality of storytelling, perhaps known more so in western cultures to women than to men, is at the core of attempting to communicate why women's history month is of vital importance.

Story conveys in ways that statistics and fact-based history cannot begin to.

Against their own better judgment, or at least what they thought would be so, I have seen a lot of my favorite seniors, meaning the ones I teach, get excited about Henrik Ibsen's "The Doll House." A 140 year old play, written by some cat who spoke Norwegian? Seriously?

The reason for the above, of course, is that it frames, not a lecture on feminism and women's rights, but a story that illustrates the above.

So, the value and power of story, to convey truths that are beyond factual comprehension.

You can tell me statistics of how many young, idealistic nurses during the late '60's and '70's enlisted in the military, or you can give me Lynda Van Devanter's “Home Before Morning,” which is her account of her experiences as an Army combat nurse in Vietnam.

You can tell me what life was like for a young Native American woman growing up on the Rosebud Reservation during the 1950's, or you can give me Mary Crow Dog's “Lakota Woman” and I can see the story, framed by but not limited to its historical context.

You can give me factual data on how the 18th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, did not go through until 1924, or you can read me the accounts and the life stories of those women suffragettes who made it possible.

Women, and cultures and activities that are not necessarily mainline, have been the most effective at couching truths in the form of story. I remember vividly the first time I was aware of truth being imparted by story, because it was in a fairly non traditional setting — a judo dojo (school) — where our sensai (teacher), Pete Saello, used to convey the lessons of judo to us by means of stories. Martial arts, ideally, is not just a way of fighting but a way of living.

The young ladies I teach, even those who have grown up in an ethnically traditional culture of some form, seldom realize that there was a time, not so long ago, when the opportunity to pursue one's own path as a woman was not a given, or even earnable, privilege. The stories of women who have gone before is one of the most cogent ways of imparting this.

Clyde Davis is a Presbyterian pastor and teacher at Clovis High School. He can be contacted at:

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