The Changing World Of Verhalen
Storytelling, or verhalen as it is known to those who speak Dutch, is a human tradition that stretches back to the beginning of civilization. It has been around since before humans were able to communicate using words either written or spoken. In ancient times, people told stories through pictures and symbols scrawled on cave walls. To this day, these ancient communiques tell a story of the lives of humanity’s ancestors. In the modern era, stories are told through books, television shows, movies, video games, and just about any other medium.
Humankind’s insatiable interest in stories is based on the need of people to understand their circumstances and the lives of those around them. Humans need to be able to process their lives through a narrative, and to be able to express creative ideas in a form that features characters either real or imagined. Even autobiographical histories or statements of factual information are best presented as stories which contain a beginning, middle, and end.
When humans talk to each other, it is also often in the form of stories. It is not often that people relate the events of their day to someone else in the form of a list. Usually, people organize the events of their days into relatable narratives that tell a cohesive tale. On a larger scale, humans do the same thing. Lives of important people and accounts of historically significant events are usually told in the form of a story.
Verhalen is a word that invokes tales told around a smoky campfire by a wise sage. In reality, the word describes the telling of a story in any venue or set of circumstances. All of humankind can relate to the narrative qualities of a good story, and there are more ways in which a story can be told today than there ever have been. It is important to continue traditions through stories the same way humanity’s ancestors did thousands of years ago. It is how the human race grows and improves upon itself.
Tags: change, history, moving, Verhalen