Spirituality of Storytelling-Part 2

In my last blog, I wrote about the power of stories to teach and communicate profound life lessons.  Stories often express the “Language of the heart.”  Here are a couple more stories to piggy-back on my blog from last week.  Feel free to share any of your stories with us, in the comment section or email them to me, if you want to stay more private.

Story #2-The Deluxe Electric Nose Hair Trimmer

Here is a humorous story I tell my students that happened to me in my first year of teaching.  When I was teaching simple machines, I was putting together a PowerPoint and wanted to spice it up to grab the 7^th grader’s attention.  On one slide, I showed how simple machines may be put together to make a complex machine.  When contemplating what complex machines to show, I thought an Army tank would be a good example.  But, for another example, I remembered seeing a “Deluxe Electric Nose-Hair Trimmer” in a store and thought it was funny, maybe a little crude, but they would appreciate the joke.  Sure enough, when I ran that slide and gave those two examples, I got everyone’s attention.  It was a few weeks before Christmas, so I added, “Make sure you put an electric nose-hair trimmer on your Christmas list.”  The students all remembered complex machines from my example.

Then, the day before Christmas break, one of my quiet students, a student who really hadn’t said a word to me all year, walks into my class with his mom.  She is holding a big gift bag and says, “Mr. Griffith, thank you so much for teaching my son.  You are his favorite teacher and he is learning so much about science from you.”  I took the gift and thanked her and her son.  When I got home, I went into the house to open it.  My wife was home and helped me unwrap the gift.  In the box was a deluxe electric nose-hair trimmer.  I was surprised and laughed at the gift.  I told my wife, “He listened to me and got the joke.”  My wife said, “Or maybe you should take the hint.”  Regardless, it was hilarious and the student opened up after that in my class.  This comical incident enabled him to become a vital part of the class and helped me remember the power of not taking myself so seriously.

Story #3-The Magic Touchstone

Once upon a time, when the ancient library in Alexandria was burned to the ground, one of the men cleaning up the debris found a book that was charred but still mostly intact called, “The Magic Touchstone.”  In this book, a map was drawn showing the way to get the beach in Greece where the “magic touchstone” was located.  On a beach with millions of stones that all looked identical, one stone held the magical power that would enable the person who held it to have all their dreams come true.  The only way to distinguish the “magic touchstone” was to hold it in your hand because the magic touchstone would become warm when held.

So, the man sold everything he had and traveled to the beach.  When he arrived, he saw millions of the stones and he crafted a plan.  He would start at the very end of the beach and pick the stones one by one, hold it in his hand and if it did not get warm, he would know it wasn't the “magic touchstone” and he would throw it into the ocean.  He started and made slow progress.  Day by day, month by month and year by year, he worked his way down the beach, picking up stones and then throwing them in the ocean when they didn't warm up.  He barely ate or slept as the years passed.  Then, after 40 years and after throwing millions of stones in the ocean, one day, he reached past his long grey beard and picked up a stone, placed it in his hand and it actually did get warm. 

At this point in the story I stop and I ask the students, “What did he do with the stone?”  Usually, a student gets it, he threw the stone into the ocean because he had been doing that for 40 years and it was ingrained into him. 

We talk about this story, how we can get into the same kind of rut.  Any day could be the day when the magic touchstone is put into our hands in so many ways and unless we are present and aware of what we are doing, we will throw it away.

So, those are a couple stories.  I have a list of them and I add to them every year.  As my life progresses, these stories help it become more deep and rich.  I will share more stories later.

Here are a few quotes to end the blog:

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.  ~Chinese Proverb


All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.  ~Martin H. Fischer

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.  ~Clay P. Bedford