My friend Lisa Rosenthal began the Vet Art Project. The Vet Art Project provides opportunities for veterans and their families to work in collaboration with artists to create art about war and service, and to foster discussion about how war and service affect us all.
They are currently offering a workshop on storytelling based on the work of author Tim O’Brien, a Viet Nam Veteran. He writes on his experiences of war and how it impacts servicemen. In the chapter "How to Tell a True War Story" in The Things They Carried, O'Brien suggests there are two ways to tell a story, "story-truth" (the truth of fiction) and "happening-truth" (the truth of fact or occurrence), writing that "story-truth is sometimes truer than happening-truth." In other words, there is an emotional truth that comes from our personal experiences and can feel “truer” than the factual details.
How do we tell someone the unthinkable? How do we describe what we have no words for? I believe we all have to find a way to share our wounded stories and stand in our power if we want to heal our past. Personally, I have written fairy tales and created a video.
Please share with me how you have told your story? How did sharing your truth change you and the people around you?
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