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The storyteller is the most exalted member of the community. The storyteller is the repository of identity for the society. The storyteller teaches the religion, the values, the great heroes, the scoundrels, the hierarchy of life. Most of the adult members of the society know these things. They have learned them from the storytellers. They tell them to their children and they debate them with neighbors. But the stoyteller makes learning FUN; they educate and they entertain. The storyteller allows listeners to travel - to distant lands, to distant times. Everyone who hears the storyteller can picture himself/herself as the hero of the story. Listeners hear, see, touch, taste and smell the experience of the storyteller. Aesop, Homer, Shakespeare, Steven Spielberg tell us about ourselves, in a way that helps us to see ourselves. But the seeing comes later, because we have had such a good time hearing the story, it stays with us and we continue to think about it. And we come back for more.
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