See a photo of Caryn, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2.
Q&A with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Question 3:
Q: How important is it to you and your work to function within the framework of a particular definition of “story?” (i.e., What is a story?) What definition do you espouse?
A: I think of the stories that matter as the myths that inform our lives,
tell us who we are and how we’re supposed to live, what we’re allowed to do with our lives and even who we should or shouldn’t love. I like to use Roland Barthes’ definition of myth as a dominant cultural narrative, or the big overstory that informs and shapes our lives. I also think of myth as a series of concentric circles — the outer circle is the cultural story of who we’re supposed to be; the next circle is the story of who we are according to our community; the next circle is the story of who we are according to family and close friends, and the find circle is the story we tell ourselves about who we are. When we start learning what we’re telling ourselves, what we’re absorbing from others about how to live, we’re working with the core of the story of our life. Changing one thing or another, opening ourselves to some possibilities we hadn’t seen before, looking at ourselves from another angle, aiming our lives toward a different ending than the old script — all of this can and does liberate our lives, our families, our communities, our culture.