Stories: they’re important

Stories.

We all have them.

What makes a good one?

There are lots of answers to that question, but one thing for sure is that if a story is never told, we will never know.

We can learn so much from listening to the stories of others.

Stories have always been able to not only inform, but to teach even if not intended to do so. We may never know who may learn something valuable or what they may benefit from in hearing what we ourselves might think of as an insignificant story.

It’s human nature to generalise. When faced with myriad, complicated information it is necessary for our minds to categorise things which share similarities, shrinking the volume of data into manageable chunks.

Our generalisations help us to make sense of the increasingly complex world we inhabit. Unfortunately, although generalisations invariably originate in some kind of truth, the problem is that our mental categories can never be completely accurate. What we gain by virtue of lumping many similar things together, we lose in the details of important differences. This is precisely where the value of stories comes into play.

The great value of our personal story lies both in its uniqueness and in how we and others are able to see ourselves through it. Although we obviously share fundamentals with many, perhaps greatest of all being our humanity, it is our particular path through life which defines our differences. We use these differences to measure and evaluate our shared experiences, our shared existence as humans on planet Earth.

Our stories give people the opportunity to make these measurements, to identify themselves in what we do and do not share, to understand more fully not only ‘the other’, but fundamentally to better understand what it means to be human, on Earth, at this time in human history. Who and what we are collectively, is morphing into something we have no historical record of so far. We need more than ever, to learn about being a new kind of ‘us’.

If we don’t understand differences how can we realistically evaluate situations involving those people who seem so different? Important decisions are being made every day, many based on ignorance. Decisions are made on our behalf by people who, given their political and economic power, determine our futures. We owe it to ourselves and to our future, to make informed decisions and mitigate the lack of cross-cultural misunderstanding.

In a world of growing division, considering others from the perspective of ‘us’ is invaluable. It is too easy to use nationalism, religion, culture, language, to divide us into groups of ‘us’ and ‘them’. At the same time, the undisputable fact is that we are all humans on one planet at one moment in time. At the same time we are being thrust into each others’ orbit with increasing velocity. The momentum of these changes is monumental, the pressures placed on us collectively are unprecedented. The potential for dischord, distress, conflict and loss is incessantly on the increase, but so is the possibility of better outcomes.

In light of these reflections, Open Secret, this blog and its podcasts seeks to facilitate the possibility of better outcomes by showing us just how much we have in common and offering the possibility of gaining a better perspective of our differences. It may even encourage us to share with, rather than retreat from and isolate ourselves and others.

Most urban Australians encounter people who don’t share the same cultural, historical backgrounds. Our daily lives have long included others who have made their ways into ‘our world’ via as many different paths as there are people. Although modern Australia is a diverse multi-cultural nation, built by the ‘invasion’ of foreigners, as indigenous Australians know too well, the increasing presence and impact of people who were not born in this land is inescapable. Overseas students are arguably the biggest number of these foreigners nowadays and of these, by far the greatest cohort comes from China.

Open Secret has emerged out of my own experience of living and working in China. This journey began for me more than 30 years ago with a university degree in Chinese Studies. Since then I have visited China numerous times, travelled to many parts of that amazing land and lived there for a total of over 10 years so far. So initially at least, one part of Open Secret will include stories, both from Chinese students living and studying in Australia, and of Australians and other westerners who are living, or have lived in China. My own story is only one of these and I offer it as part of this website to stimulate others to share their own stories. As we will see, the issues raised through the experiences of people who are actually engaged across cultures is a perfect introduction to the issues alluded to in the paragraphs above. This is in no small way because of the fact that the Australia of the future is increasingly, inextricably linked with the growth of China.

What better place to understand this growth and the possibilities it raises for our futures, than through the stories of its youth and reflections of China and Australia through the prism of these experiences.