Storygardeners
Bernard Anson Amanda Bucklow

...A Storygardener is

...a job title for people whose creativity and breadth of interests cannot easily be labelled...

...someone who has the courage to experiement, to dream and play and who is willing to tell their story... who makes connections...

...someone who respects the ethics of the Storygarden binary code

...Why storytelling
Human behaviour is, for the most part, the result of our values and our belief systems. Likewise, our belief systems are affected by the stories we tell ourselves and others.

A culture of peace and creativity needs a supporting belief system that values creativity and peace. We can actively create that culture (or not) through our conversations.

We become the stories we tell.

Why young muslims line up to die article for the CNN web site about the culture of suicide bombers "Candidates for martyrdom were told the first drop of blood shed by a martyr washes away their sins. They could select 70 of their nearest and dearest to enter Heaven; and they would have at their disposal 72 houris, the beautiful virgins of paradise, Hassan recounted in the New Yorker."

...Why the garden?
The garden has a deep, symbolic meaning for all cultures. It represents paradise or heaven (paradisu, arcadia), birth of creation (Adam and Eve), wholeness, plenty, being 'at one', safety and security, beauty.

This deep symbolism of the garden defies rational thought and has, in recent times, been reduced to a metaphor; an echo of our collective memory.

In times of physical threat, the containement of the garden is frequently a practical safeguard. For example during war time it becomes a source of food. Without the threat of war or economic shortage the garden becomes a place of psychic and emotional retreat: a place where imagination and creativity are possible to counter the feelings of fear that accompany uncertainty.

The underlying idea behind the Storygarden is that our creative problem solving capacity is not accessed through linear thought or rational thinking; that the world we live in is adaptive, complex and chaotic and therefore understanding and solutions will have a better chance to emerge if we tune in to the very system that is managing very well with such complexity - nature.