Storytelling has always been at the heart of being human because it serves some of our most basic needs: passing along our traditions, confessing failings, healing wounds, engendering hope; strengthening our sense of community. But in our culture of invasion and evasion, this time-honored practice cannot be taken for granted. It must be supported in special settings and protected with strong ground rules.
Instead of telling our vulnerable stories, we seek safety in abstractions, speaking to each other about our opinions, ideas, and beliefs rather than about our lives. Academic culture blesses this practice by insisting the more abstract our speech, the more likely we are to touch the universal truths that unite us. But what happens is exactly the reverse: as our discourse become more abstract, the less connected we feel.
— Parker J. Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness