Monthly Memos

A Time For Story-Telling

Charles I. Mundale
Executive Director of MCCR

December 1994

Bill Bockelman may be onto something. The retired--but hardly retiring--Lutheran minister and former editor at Augsburg Publishing wants us to tell each other stories, and he's invented a board game to help us do it. It's called Life Stories and it requires players to tell each other stories about themselves and their lives. And this unlikely game is actually selling--making its own way in the cold cruel market. Mr. Bockelman is not yet in a league with the Parker Brothers and Monopoly, but the possibility is not beyond thinking. And for reasons similar to those that made Monopoly a hit in the 1930's.

Monopoly gave its players a chance to buy homes, hotels, and railroads at a time when most people had trouble buying groceries. Social scientists who have looked into this curious phenomenon attribute the game's popularity to "catharsis."

Handling all that money, making all those purchases, enjoying occasional good luck from Chance or getting a little help from the Community Chest provided much-needed momentary release from the money-less, jobless real world. And it wasn't always that momentary; a single game of monopoly could go on for several evenings.

According to the catharsis theory, the Depression-born emotions of fear and frustration could be purged by this brief sortie into the world of money and power. Tensions were reduced, anxieties allayed, harsh words left unspoken. Most important, families were strengthened--and at a time when the country sorely needed strong families.

Our country is once again awash in fear, frustration, and other negative emotions. And once again in need of strong families. Bill Bockelman knows his game can strengthen families. He recites some poignant evidence from letters, phone calls, and conversations. Memories, good and bad, get a fresh airing as the game is played. As a result, players get to know, understand, and appreciate each other better by the time the board goes back in the box. The same thing happens when friends play.

In a recent experiment, about 150 persons at tables of six to eight people played the game in one room at one time. The resulting rise in group energy and camaraderie was, Mr. Bockelman reports, "quite remarkable."

The group experiment prompts a provocative hypothesis: Why not put Life Stories to work on our country's Multicultural Problem, a problem every bit as serious as and inextricably involved with The Family Problem.

Suppose people on different sides of the culture boundaries got together around a table and began telling each other stories. Not issuing "statements," not "expressing themselves." Just telling stories about their own lives. Suppose this happened in synagogues and churches. Suppose congregations from different sides of the culture line sponsored joint story-telling events. Suppose it happened in neighborhoods. Suppose neighborhoods of different cultures sponsored joint events. Suppose businesses used this technique to address the diversity issue in their midst.

Surely, in a season for recalling ancient stories, telling each other our own stories is worth thinking about.

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