By Scott T. Allison
In his recent book Nexus, philosopher Yuval Noah Harari observes that modern humans have access to more information than ever before, yet “it doesn’t seem that all this information has given us answers to the big questions of life: Who are we? What should we aspire to? What is a good life and how should we live it?” (Harari, 2024, p. xi).
This is an odd statement, perhaps even alarming. How do we not know who we are or what a good life is? Human beings have been aware of the key components of “a good life” for many thousands of years. In antiquity, literary classics and entire philosophical traditions were built around these components.
The answers have been hiding in plain sight for millennia. Every day we are bombarded with pointers about how to live our best lives.
Stories as Vast Reservoirs of Wisdom
Everything we need to know about living a meaningful life and becoming our best selves can be found in good storytelling. The vast majority of people grow up hearing stories, reading stories, or watching stories. In Europe or North America, fairy tales from Bambi to Hansel and Gretel offer recipes to children about how best to live our lives.
As much as they need nutritious food, adults need good stories, too. Consider the Epic of Gilgamesh, composed over 4,000 years ago. Gilgamesh was a mighty but arrogant king who befriends a wild man named Enkidu. When Enkidu dies as punishment from the gods, a grief-stricken Gilgamesh embarks on a futile quest for immortality. Ultimately, Gilgamesh is humbled and transformed into accepting his mortality and finding meaning in his life.
Gilgamesh teaches us that the key to a good life resides in understanding that suffering is transformative, that the material world is fleeting, that friendships sustain us, that nature and humility are essential, and that legacy is found in meaningful actions.
These same life lessons have been imparted to us through the telling of countless stories. You can choose almost any popular story, such as Hamlet, The Wizard of Oz, The Epic of Sunjata, The Great Gatsby, A Tale of Two Cities, the Bhagavad Gita, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and countless other tales.
In all these stories, heroes go on a journey of self-discovery and metamorphosis. We are drawn to these stories because they all call us to go on the same journey as these heroes. We love Harry Potter, Jane Eyre, and Mulan because each one of us is that same awkward underdog who must discover their hidden talents and blossom into someone who does great good in the world.
All our favorite stories, both ancient and modern, point to what comprises a good human life. Painful things happen to us that challenge us and force us to seek help from others. We are humbled into healing, learning, and growing into our best selves. We then give back to others.
Wisdom Hidden in Plain Sight
So then why does Yuval Noah Harari write that modern humans have little understanding of who we are and how we should live? The answers we seek are in plain sight, revealed in every good story we’ve ever encountered in novels, plays, movies, and television.
Most people make the mistake of believing they read and watch stories with the goal of being entertained. The deeper reason is that stories exist to convey wisdom about how to best live a purpose-filled life. The authors of those stories are our mentors, imploring us to use our suffering to grow into resilient, resourceful, caring human beings who make a positive difference in this world.
I’m reminded of the late, great Angela Lansbury, who sang the wonderful theme song to Beauty and the Beast. The opening line is, “Tale as Old as Time,” a clear reference to ancient story patterns that connect us to the wisdom of deep time.
Yuval Noah Harari makes the point that modern humans are overwhelmed with information yet starved for wisdom. Perhaps the solution is to put away our smartphones and begin reading and gleaning insights about life from good stories.
References
Campbell, J. (1949). The hero with a thousand faces. New York: New World Library.
Harari, Y. N. (2024). Nexus: A brief history of information networks from the stone age to AI. New York: Random House.