Fables, fairytales and storytelling are in our DNA. We are born with a dictionary of symbols engraved in our bones.

~ Tina Konstant

No matter how big or tall we grow, how smooth or slick we think we are, how adult or educated we say we are, the truth is that at the very heart of us, we’re still kids…and nothing makes us happier, more attentive, curious, and engaged than a good story!

The trouble is, for some reason (never fully explained), there comes an age in our society when someone in our lives decides that we're too old for stories.

I remember the day it happened to me.

An uncle we loved, who made up wild, crazy tales about three wabbits, turned to my sisters and me, and said, “No more. You’re too old.”

First, my heart broke a little, then I was curious, then, because I’m human, I refused to accept it and went looking elsewhere for my dose of fantasy.

As you can expect, I found plenty! But the stories I found were different. They were designed to entertain me, and no more.

And that’s the thing…

The fables, old tales, and fairy tales we grew up with had a knack of weaving through every fibre of our being, teaching us how to connect, make peace, build bridges, be brave, heal, and become good humans.

To learn courage, we turned to Peter Pan, Cinderella, and Gluskonba and the Four Wishes. To learn about friendship, we turned to The Lion and the Mouse. To learn that no matter how small we are, we can always do something, we turned to the hummingbird story.

That all stopped when we became “too old for stories”. We stopped listening to tales that helped us grow into better humans and found our escape in entertainment instead.

But that desperate part of us still searching for answers was never far away. As a result, we created substitutes. Instead of old fables and fairy tales, we turned to heroes, superheroes, magnificent vandals and villains. These characters became the cornerstone of our fiction and led to the well-known and much-documented Bond Effect.

The Bond Effect could just as easily be called The Princess Effect, The Warlord Effect, The Hulk Effect, The Insert-Favourite-Character Effect.

Basically, when we watch a movie or read a book that has a character we admire, we leave that fictional world feeling a little more like them…stronger, smarter, smoother, slicker…and a little less like “us”.

The trouble is it doesn’t last.

It’s a cloak that hangs on our shoulders for a while, then fades when the lights come up, and the world slaps us awake.

The feeling of greatness, confidence, power, or wonder doesn’t stick because all we did was spend a few hours in someone else’s shoes.

Fables and traditional stories…stories with SOUL…stories designed to feed that human need to grow deep roots, don’t fade.

When you come across such a story, it stays with you. It lives with you. It becomes a part of who you are.

Great fables and fairy tales have a power that threads into the very fibre of our beings. It’s why, after just one listening, you will most certainly remember a fable or fairy tale forever, compared to the plot of the latest blockbuster you watched last night.

“Now,” you say. “That’s all well and good, but how does it work in my grown-up, adult life?”

Well, here's a story for you...

“A long time ago, there was a king who loved elephants. His favourite was a massive elephant who he’d ridden into battle more times than he could count, and he always won.

This elephant was huge. He was powerful. He was the most magnificent elephant the world had ever seen.

As with all things though, the elephant grew old, and it came time for him to retire.

The king loved him so much that he gave the elephant an immense valley to roam around so he could eat, rest, and live out his life.

One day this great elephant was drinking from a waterhole when he found that he was stuck. He struggled to get out, but he couldn't. He kicked and he thrashed but no matter how he tried, he sunk deeper.

People noticed and tried to help him, but he was just too heavy! More people came to help and finally, word of the elephant's demise reached the king.

The whole village gathered at the waterhole and tried to pull the elephant out, but nothing helped.

After a while, an old woman walked by and whispered to the king. At first, the king didn't quite take her seriously. But the old woman had been around for a long time, and she was known for her wisdom. So, the king agreed to do what she said.

“Get the trumpets,” he said. “Get the drums and sabers!”

With the elephant still stuck in the mud, the whole village gathered around and began to play.

First, the drums beat the battle march, then the trumpets roared, then the people sang and stamped and shook their sabers until great booms and echoes of war shook the mountainsides!

It was then that the king saw a glint in the elephant's eye.

Memories of his youth flowed through his blood, into his bones, and straight to his heart. He reared up. He rode. He kicked. He climbed! With every thump of the beating drum, this great elephant pulled himself out of the mud.

Standing strong and standing firm, he trumpeted until the skies roared and the earth quacked. And with that, the old elephant was back.

From there on, the king ordered that drums be played every morning and every night to remind the elephant of his true heart.”

I LOVE THAT STORY!

It says so much.

Sit a little with that tale and consider the difference between The Bond Effect and The Fable Effect.

One is designed to entertain (and con you into buying Aston Martins). The other is designed to grab your heart, hold your hand, and not let go.

That old elephant story has a dozen messages embedded in it. None of which needs to be explained to you. You know what the story is saying. You might not articulate it, but you feel it.

Why?

Because real storytelling is in our DNA. We are born with a dictionary of symbols engraved in our bones. We know what these stories mean at our core.

Why again?

Because these are stories about “being human” and have been told in various forms from the day we gathered around campfires.

So, when we stop hearing them because we're too old, we effectively cut the cord on an entire heritage of education and personal growth.

Think about the learning curve of children. It's exponential. Then suddenly, it slows, then for many, it stops.

We are who we are. Deal with it…

The sad truth is that our dumb factor is inversely proportional to the number of heartbeat fables, fairy tales, and stories we hear.

In short, we stop growing up when we stop hearing the stories that teach us how to grow up!

Now, for you reading this today, that’s good news.

Because here's the magic…

If you're writing a book or talking to an audience of adults, all you have to remember is that they’re big kids, and like all kids, the moment you say “Once upon a time…” you have them hooked. Their guards go down, their hearts and minds relax, they smile a little, they take a breath, they open their eyes, and they listen.

Bottom line, you have their attention. Now, all you have to do is not waste it on mere entertainment.