SHOPPE
The nineteenth-century Romantic poets, people like Wordsworth and Coleridge, were fascinated by the human processes I just described— the ways in which our memories capture and refine our strong experiences. They also noticed that when they reflected on their memories, they generated a sense of what their experiences meant. Wordsworth pointed to this interplay of experience, memory, and reflection as a source of poetry. We humans still act in the ways the Romantics described, and our scholars are still interested in this human capacity. These days, however, we are more likely to say that we shape the raw data of our experiences into stories as we make memories, recreate them, and reflect on them.
This story-making that we humans do is a wonderful but also dangerous power. As an example of its wonderful outcomes, our joyous religious and cultural festivals are formed from stories. As individuals, families, and friends, we can participate in our festivals, experience their joy, and create treasured memories of our own. On the other hand, some stories circulating between us these days are about grievance and resentment. We are being told— and are sometimes telling— stories that undermine the dignity of other political, cultural, or economic groups. Rather than working across differences to face challenges, resentment-based storytelling uses blame in a bid for power. Stories based in resentment and grievance rip our social and cultural fabric apart, finally leaving us with no common story between us to warm our hearts toward each other.
Human nature being what it is, we are often drawn toward resentment. However, we are not powerless. Whenever we find that resentment is stealing the joy from our lives, there is a practice we can follow: find better stories and live according to them.
Lloyd Den Boer is a retired educator living together with his wife in Edmonton. According to their religious tradition, joy is more than a nice thing to have; it is an obligation to practise. They do their best to meet that obligation and experience its blessings.
WINTER 2025 | 21