Setting the Stage for the World of Enchantment

Psychologist Adam Smith in his book Powers of Mind uses a story as a clever metaphor to illustrate the way socialization encodes us to see (and not see) certain things as we mature.¹ He quotes philosopher Aldous Huxley, who described our minds as a reducing valve, filtering out certain realities in order to prevent us from being overwhelmed with too much data.² Smith’s story goes like this:

A small child turns to his mother and exclaims, “Look, mommy, it’s a purple cow!” His wise mother gently tells the child there is no such thing as a purple cow. On another sighting the child makes a similar excited report only to receive a similar rational correction. Soon the boy quits reporting purple cows and ultimately quits seeing purple cows altogether. One might surmise the same would be true for fairies, leprechauns, gnomes, goblins, and ghosts. They might be there, but it is a reality we have all agreed we cannot see.

It is this “maybe there is another world we don’t see” sentiment that forms the basis of all fairyland stories. Somewhere deep in us all is the hope that there might be more than our too often plain-vanilla world. When that hope is combined with trust (or faith in the religious sense), it can sometimes transport us to a magical world. Once there, we witness and experience enchantment. And, upon return to our everyday life, we are forever changed by our captivating trip. Once Wendy Darling and her brothers John and Michael returned with Peter Pan after visiting Neverland, the three would never be the same again. The same was true for Alice and Cinderella and Thumbelina.

The world of learning can be a magical place. When protégés open the treasure box of learning and all the joy and excitement inside spills out, they are never able to return it to the box. It becomes a part of their DNA and becomes self-directed, only needing a mentor as an escort cheering their progress, not an elbow nudging them along.

Whether a mentor chooses to craft or re-craft a story, like our opening Mutt and Jeff example, several key steps are involved. The first step is to clarify a story’s purpose. Here’s a checklist of questions to ask yourself:

• What key learning points do I hope to convey with a story?

• By using a story, am I indulging in irrelevant fantasy? Is the point best communicated by analogy?

• Is my protégé likely to appreciate the point if it’s conveyed by a story? Or is he or she likely to be literal-minded and view stories as “much ado about nothing”?

• How do I convey the story so it comes alive and achieves its purpose?

Most mentors can learn to tell stories well, but some may find storytelling so challenging that they prefer to use other approaches. If you decide to incorporate a story into your mentoring discussions, you may find it helpful to structure your story around the following elements: the context, the challenge, and the climax.