Brian McDonald begins chapter 4, Why Humans Tell Stories, in his book “The Golden Theme” with this quote from Ursula K. LeGuin: “There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”

I’m reading his book online at Booktrope.com,a new concept called “team publishing” where books are available to read for free online, including books they’ve published and many from other publishers.

McDonald opines that “stories are a way to get the benefit of someone else’s experience without having to have the experience oneself. . . . Because stories contain valuable survival information, we are ravenous consumers of stories and seek them out daily.”  He goes on to say that stories teach us the proper attitude to get along in life, like “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” or the Zen parable “The Blind Men and the Elephant.”

He gets the name of his theory of storytelling from the ancient mathematical concept of the Golden Mean.  Every artist is trained in its use to produce a pleasing composition.  He goes on to say that the Golden Theme is a Universal Law and connects it to The Golden Rule (that is a thread through all religions).  This is where I kinda got uninterested in the book.

But he does a good job of employing storytelling to make his points thus illustrating how “showing” is more useful and meaningful than “telling.”

Amazon says, “Brian McDonald is an award-winning director/writer who has written for comic books, A&E’s HOARDERS and directed spots for VISA. His film WHITE FACE has run on HBO and CINEMAX and is used in corporations nation-wide as a diversity-training tool.”

ODE is one of my favorite magazines and online communities. Their tag line is “for Intelligent Optimists” a sentiment I can relate to.

I love having a magazine around that I can pick up and read stories about what people are doing to create solutions. Too much media tells about gloom and doom.

Two other magazines and online communities to check out are GOOD, “a collaboration of people, business and nonprofits pushing the world forward”, and YES (Powerful Ideas, Practical Actions.)

Ode says, “Good news rarely makes the headlines… except in Ode. To celebrate 2010 – and anticipate more good news to come in 2011 – here are Ode’s 10 most positive stories from the year that was.”

1. FIXING THE FREE MARKET How co-ops – businesses in which the employees are also the owners of the company – merge economic growth with social goals. Steven van Yoder

2. AND NOW, THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT AFRICA Africa may often be seen as a lost continent, but a new study reveals a completely different image. Africans are becoming increasingly wealthy – at a faster pace than most assume. Marco Visscher

3. THE NEW BLACK GOLD? Biochar – charcoal derived from burning plants – can boost crop yields and help fight climate change. Andrew Tolve

4. GROW YOUR OWN – SEAWEED THAT IS “Everyone on Earth should have access to enough nutrients,” says Willem Brandenburg, “even when there are one and a half times as many people to feed in 2050.” His solution: cover the coastal waters around river estuaries with huge seaweed beds. Lilian Kluivers

5. CANCER RESEARCH GETS A BOOST FROM VENTURE CAPITAL The “war on cancer” has been going on for decades, yet victory is still nowhere in sight. Andy Rachleff, a venture capitalist turned philanthropist, is trying to speed things up by funding research by young scientists with new ideas. Jessica Wapner

6. FLOWER POWER (NO, NOT THAT KIND…) Why a 19th-century invention is only now finding its place in the sun as a 21st-century energy source. Greg T. Spielberg

7. GETTING VACCINES WHERE THEY’RE NEEDED THE MOST VillageReach helps to deliver essential vaccines to remote areas in developing countries. Marco Visscher

8. MOVE OVER MICROFINANCE; HERE COMES THE “MISSING MIDDLE” Development economists have long lamented the “missing middle”: the void in emerging markets between microfinance-backed individuals and big firms supported by banks. That’s beginning to change. Adam Smith

9. ACTIVISM FOR BEGINNERS How three friends rescued hundreds of Uganda’s child soldiers. Marco Visscher

10. TAKING ROOT IN THE CITY How urban agriculture is changing our relationship with food – for good. Casey Miner

You can read the stories here and start to feel good about some of the people who are working to make the world a better place for all of us. You might even be inspired!

Why do some of us like to scared out of their wits?  Why do some of us find humor in horror? If you are someone who can come up with reasonable answers to these questions, join your tribe at The Loft Cinema, this Friday the 13th at the annual All Nite Scream-O-Rama to view “12 hours of non-stop terror classics, all screened on ghastly 35mm film, and all guaranteed to curdle your blood, strip your nerves and melt your face!”

Last year as I was leaving the Loft after viewing a real grown-up film, a long line was forming for the 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. terror classics. People of all ages were excitedly queued up in their pajamas, clutching pillows, and prepared to spend the night in somewhat uncomfortable theater seats.

The Ghost or Spooky story is an important genre in storytelling tradition. Just Google scary stories and you’ll come up with lots of resources like The American Folklore website featuring classic ghost stories and supernatural tales; Ghost Stories, part of the Paranormal Network; Everything Scary (self explanatory); The Moonlit Road, Southern ghost stories and folktales; and Scary for Kids that says “Very short scary stories, urban legends and really spooky tales that are true, fiction, made-up and everywhere in between.”

If you can’t stand to miss the gore, check out the Loft’s schedule and “pay to get in . . . pray to get out!”