Ted talks are known to present powerful and informational ideals that provoke thought and can be inspiring. In this TedX talk, Dominic Colenso discusses the importance of stories. He references social media and the ways in which we use it to present the happiest parts of our life, not telling our full story. He even tells stories of his own throughout this talk, which is ironic in that he is discussing the importance of telling stories. He addresses how he, at one point in his life, stopped telling his own story saying it was not relevant. He discusses how when he stopped telling his story pushed him to lose his identity. He pushes the idea throughout this video that stories make us who we are and help us connect with each other.

Richard Kearney addresses in his text the idea of stories. Kearney right off the bat makes the claim that “stories are what make our lives worth living. They are what make our condition human.” (Kearney, 3) This claim is one that largely is exemplified throughout his writing about stories in this chapter. He delves into the ideas of myths, personal stories and the ways that “narrative provides us with one of our most viable forms of identity- individual and communal.” (Kearney, 4) He discusses the history of storytelling and references ancient Greek times and philosophers such as Aristotle. Kearney discusses both stories that have full truth, that are based off of personal encounters, as well as the ideas of myths, which are stories that have truth but have made their way to now from history. Myths often come from some sort of “narrative fantasy” as mentioned by Kearney. (Kearney, 7) The point of these narratives or myths was to “retell a story that had been told many times before.” (Kearney, 8) Kearney goes on to discuss myths in a way that allow us to understand the true purpose of stories and how we continue to tell not only myths, but our own stories today.

In the Tedx talk, mentioned in the first paragraph, Colenso addresses the importance of telling your own story. In the Kearney chapter, Kearney discusses the importance of stories in general and gives us a reference for history and meaning of stories through our developed language as well as the way we connect with each other. Kearney mentions in his chapter that the words “once upon a time” have opened up the doors to us telling a great story. I found it ironic that in the Ted talk, Colenso begins his talk with just those words exactly. Colenso really pushes the narrative that stories are essential to our being and that “when you share your stories you create connection.” This is represented throughout the Kearney chapter as well, as Kearney presents the idea that “who I am is a story.” These two texts, while different, complement each other and support overarching ideas of stories throughout each. Kearney says in the last line of this chapter, references Socrates “that the un narrated life is not worth living.” While Colenso does not make a claim that large, he does agree that stories form us, make us, and create us, and without them we lose our self-identity.