The Fractal Nature of Story

Jean Houston, in her memoir A Mythic Life, states that every living organism is made up of fractals, that is, “repetitions of the same general patterns, at both ascending and descending scales,” such as a tree whose pattern appears in small and large branches, twigs, and a single leaf.

Stories, too, are living organisms; they, too, contain fractals.

The larger fractal of your life story can be broken into the beginning-middle-end pattern of childhood, adulthood and old age. Those fractals include the smaller fractals or stories/subplots of love, work, the body, spirituality and community.

And within each of those subplots, or smaller fractals, are more fractals and stories. For instance, your “love story” includes the story of a particular relationship, and within that story, the story of the day you met, and within that story, the story of what you said and how you reacted.

Indeed, stories carry energy, and while you can’t touch or see or taste a story, they live within us, and often “live us” as living organisms are wont to do.

M. Carolyn Miller, MA, designs narrative- and game-based learning. She also writes and speaks about the power of story in our lives and world. www.cultureshape.com

Photo credit: Fractal art by galet09 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.