HOW TO FIGHT FOR YOURSELF AND OTHERS WITH EMOTIONALLY INTELLIGENT STORYTELLING: A LESSON FROM ZELENSKY

This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. 

I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge - even wisdom. Like art.

 —Toni Morrison

No matter how bad things look, every story is essentially a call to action.

Whether implied or direct, the dramatic story arc of crisis, struggle, and transformation, with its conflicts, knots of tension, and their release, ignites an internal energy that ultimately demands external manifestation. Often it’s the quietest voices who have the most power, even in this world where noise often obstructs substance. It’s because they usually tell authentic stories that may begin in traumatic circumstance, but hold a vision of possibilities. Their story reflects a rising energy that transcends pain.

I’ve seen this enlivening pattern replay over and over in my story sanctuaries for the last 29 years. Cancer patients have entered  disconsolate, written and shared their story within the container of the classic heroine’s journey plot, been compassionately witnessed, and as a result, moved to take life-affirming actions: a woman held a gratitude dinner for all the people in her neighborhood and church who supported her family during treatment, another returned to her first love of being a midwife after working in a pro-choice clinic for years, yet another learned how strong her marriage was. In another group, teens with HIV/AIDS bonded as a community, started holding each other to the ritual of taking their medications, and supported one another’s new aspirations. One young woman transformed over a period of months from a drug-addictd prostitute to telling her story at a Magic Johnson event, and applying for college. There are so man others -- too many to mention here.

It happens, I believe, through the process of telling a deeper story about ouselves than the one we constantly hear, based on the old stories, and through the process of being compassionately witnessed. Held in the container of story sanctuary, timid voices grow stronger; shattered personalities begin to knit together, identities begin to transform from victim to a process of becoming who we really are.

It’s in telling our deep story that holds both our shadow reality and our highest vision that we meet our transformational moment.

One of the foundational story plots that has the most transformative impact on our lives is the David and Goliath plot, sometimes called Rags to Riches, although its not about material gain. Someone considered small and insignificant meets their moment, steps up to challenge the evil force oppressing the land, whether literal or metaphorical, and reveals qualities never before exhibited, slaying the monster and freeing the land.

Everywhere in our world are examples of the power of story told by an ordinary person to help us create a generative world for all beings. Whether through the tale of the small David slaying the mighty Goliath, a young woman quietly telling her story to a Congressional committee and destroying the monster, a comedian-turned-president giving voice to the sovereignty of an invaded nation, or you and I overcoming the obstacles that present themselves to block our way forward, story holds it all – the difficult present, the heavy-handed past, and the possibilities for a better future ready to emerge from the shadows.

How a comedian called the world to action

Volodymyr Zelensky was a comedian, film producer, and champion of Dancing with the Stars when he was elected president of Ukraine in 2019. Elected to fight Ukraine’s tradition of political corruption, he gained fame early as a neophyte leader who nevertheless stood up to US President Donald J. Trump’s attempt to force him into lambasting Hunter Biden, when Joe Biden was on his way to the Democratic candidacy. Besides this momentary event, Zelensky was a disappointment, and not popular as 2022 began. In addition to everything else, he downplayed U.S. intelligence reports that Russian demagoge Vladimir Putin was preparing to invade Ukraine without provocation.

On February 24, the Russian Army invaded eastern Ukraine

With that, Zelensky’s defining moment had arrived. Rather than doing the expected thing: leaving his country immediately and issuing patriotic calls to resistance from exile, Zelensky stayed. “I need a weapon, not a ride,” he declared to U.S. offers to help him escape. With those words, he stepped up to a new role in a new story. transformed himself into a people's leader. He took off his suit and tie and donned military fatigues, moved into a Kyiv bunker, and began to tell the Ukrainian story in grainy self-produced videos from the streets, bombed out towns, his face reflecting the stress of war. So doing, he captured the heroic imagination of the world, rallied the Ukrainian people to fight the invaders, and galvanized the support of most of the world. 

Here are some of the elements of Zelensky's effective advocacy for his country that have lessons for us in our ordinary lives:

• He has personalized the war as a family man separated from his family and in danger of assassination. We resonate with him as we do with the protagonist of a meaningful story.
• His video stories follow the classic story arc of crisis, struggle, and transformation, This archetypal plot is a call to action because it ignites the listeners' internal energy, which demands manifestation in the external world.
• An actor, he knows how to live into a role. A performer, he knows how to tell a story. A producer, he knows how to use video to reflect the moment. It’s the storyteller Zelensky that has captured the world's imagination.
• He describes honestly what is happening on the ground, not flinching from the bloody struggle of the Ukrainian people to persevere and to protect Europe’s eastern flank from Russian aggression.
• At the same time, he holds out a vision of a stalwart Ukraine as a member nation of NATO and the EU, which has welcomed its candidacy, ending most of his videos with a vision of Ukraine rebuilt and functioning as a contemporary world leader. It's the combination of authentic narration of circumstances, combined with a personalized journey, culminating in an inspired but doable vision that is the call to action.
• Speaking to governments, he frames the story to touch their national values and concerns; for example framing the Ukraine situaiton in terms of fighting for liberty and sovereignty in his speech to the US Congress early in the war. To European governments, he captured the fear of Russian aggression and the return of a Hitler-like demagogue. To Africans, he is preparing to speak to the famine now being aggravated by the Russian blockade of Ukraine's ports.  
• He adapts his story to not only to the concerns of the audience, but to the need of the moment. As the war drags on, and “Ukraine fatigue” threatens, his message is to continue -- possibly the most enduring quality of heroism. "We are still here,” he said in a video produced on the 100th day of the war. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us34HFdi0R8h
• To the Ukrainian people, he tells the true stories of their heroism, sacrifice, and determination, which transcend the rubble in which they stand.
• Beyond all of these elements, Zelensky is consistent, showing up with a new video every day.       -   

     

     What can you learn from Zelensky? 

Authenticity, vision, consistency -- the elements of powerful, non-violent advocacy.

What is the situation and the challenge  that faces you or your allies? 

What is the vision or possibility that keeps you going?

To whom are you telling your story and what are their primary concerns?

What do you need to fulfill your mission, save your or another's life, live to tell a new story?

Footnote: Our lives are shaped by the stories we hear as children. Children’s bedtime stories in Ukraine are about underdogs and psychologists surmise that they have shaped the spirit of defiance. On the other hand, Russian fairy tales promote magical thinking. They often tell of a miracle in which humans eare saved by an external forcem, such  as a magical being that intervenes to save the protagonist, or to guide them to safety.https://theconversation.com/amp/how-fairy-tales-shape-fighting-spirit-ukraines-children-hear-bedtime-stories-of-underdog-heroes-while-russian-children-hear-tales-of-magical-success-179630