Bonfire Conversations Foster Great Communication

If you really want to get to know a person, light a bonfire and let the stories flow.

Storytelling is in the human DNA, from ancient times man gets together with friends and stories are told.  From the mundane of what happened during our time away, to grand adventures to entertain, we all communicate through stories. 

According to the article New Dates for the oldest Cave Paintings by Zack Zorich in Archeology Today (1.), the oldest cave drawings were found in Chauvet Cave in southern France. According to the article the carbon dating of the paintings is said to be around 35,000 years old, showing that storytelling has been a vital way to communicate from the earliest of times. 

From the site Earthdate.org The Oldest Story Ever Told, by contributors Juli Hennings and Harry Lynch (2.) the oldest oral story is the Myth of Budj Bim, which sounds like Judge Jim, the volcano god as told by an aboriginal tribe in Southern Australia. The reason it is believed to be the oldest is that the last known eruption of the volcano associated with this story is 37,000 years ago. Budj Bim was one of the 4 creator gods who stayed behind becoming the volcano and he made it erupt. The story telling technique of the Aboriginals is called Dreamtime.

Finally, the oldest known fictional written story is the “Epic of Gilgamesh” written by the Sumerian king Shuruppak. It is a mythic poem he wrote to his son Ziusudra and is thought to be in existence as early as 2500 B.C. (The Oldest Story Ever Told, article by Evan Andrews, published on History.com December 18, 2015)
  
This is proof that storytelling has been one of our most treasured forms of communication from man’s beginning, and should be something we acknowledge as important even in the year 2025. We get much of our storytelling now by TV and movies, but we should not sell short the art of sitting with friends and sharing the stories of our lives. Whether they are fact based or fictional elaborations of thoughts and ideas, stories enhance the way we get to know people. We find out what they love and value by what they choose to share. We find out how ones mind works, by what they choose to emphasize and the genre of the stories they choose. 

It is also through stories that our mind stretches and grows as we develop ideas and choose the way we want to describe the world around us. So, get friends together, go outside, light a fire and tell your story.

1.    https://archaeology.org/issues/july-august-2016/digs-discoveries/trenches-france-chauvet-dating/ 
2.    https://www.earthdate.org/episodes/the-oldest-story-ever-told 
3.    https://www.history.com/articles/what-is-the-oldest-known-piece-of-literature