Patterns

There is a wide body of knowledge detailing how the brain learns by recognizing patterns. Kids can learn to read by recognizing the image of words, not necessarily by learning each letter in the word and the sounds they make. I thought about this after looking through that link I posted a few days ago on optical illusions. These illusions work like they do because the brain automatically tries to figure out patterns and imposes them on what it sees.

Why do I bring this up? Because I often wonder why we as humans are such a story-telling people. Why do we tell stories? Why do we take time out of our lives and gather in rooms to listen to one person up front talk about something, or tell us about something? Why do we try to explain something by making up a word picture for it?

I think it all comes down to patterns. Stories give us a pattern that help us recognize and make sense of other parts of our lives. For example, take the story of the Three Little Pigs. From that, we see a pattern that tells us that investing time and work up front, and not skimping, can benefit us in the long run. We can use that pattern to interpret other things in life, like succeeding in college. We can make sense of the demands of homework by recognizing a similar pattern.

At a larger scale, why do tales like, say, Anna Karenina and David Copperfield speak to us today? Why does any work of classical literature speak to us today. Because at their heart they all form patterns that help us make sense of our own lives. We see how characters act and react to situations in their lives, we overlay those patterns on our lives, and life doesn't seem as chaotic and random. We see the pattern in things.