Week 11: Story Telling and Story Making

1. What's happening with your new occupation?  Give us an update.

This week was a better week!  Thursday afternoon I sat down for an hour and played the ukulele.  I found "the ukulele teacher" youtube channel and learned from him.  I also worked on the song "Here Comes the Sun" which had rifs in the song.  Rifs were completely new to me and it is when you are plucking individual strings rather than strumming across all of the strings.  

1. How does the information regarding storytelling and story making as presented by Clark, Ennevor, and Richarson (1996) relate to your new occupation and its place in your personal story? 

In Clark's Slagle lecture, occupational storytelling is the history of the individual as an occupational being and occupational story making is the process of creating a story involving the therapist and the survivor that will be enacted in the future and focused on further development of the survivor as an occupational being.  With regards to playing the ukulele, my occupational story does not involve music very much.  Aside from the piano, the only other instruments I have played are ones that we were required to in elementary music class.  My orchestra class ended with me receiving the lowest grade I have ever received in school, multiple phonecalls to my mom, and my teacher crying. . . so that gives a little insight on how well that class went.  Anyways, music has played a role in my life, but it always went better when I felt intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically motivated.  Granted some weeks I am more intrinsically motivated when I am practicing the ukulele and other weeks are strictly extrinsic motivation.  

When I first chose the ukulele as my new occupation I saw myself playing the ukulele and it sounding really good. . . . after the first week I realized that the ukulele is mainly used to accompany as you sing.  I originally thought that it would be fine and I would still play knowing that the songs would not sound the same without someone singing along, but it's been a little more challenging than I originally thought.  Although with the discovery of the rifs this week, it might get a little bit better, despite not singing along with the song.  My occupational story making is constantly being reshaped and remolded as I discover challenges or obstacles that are keeping me from becoming the ukulele player I originally envisioned.  

1. Lessons on Living, a collection of Ted Koppel's interviews with Morrie Schwartz, gives us many examples of occupational science concepts that we have studied this semester (such as factors that build resiliency, determinants of individual identity, the meaningfulness of occupation and its effect on life satisfaction, and many others). Which concepts seemed to be most exemplified by the video to you? How do Morrie's statements and/or actions support or refute these concepts?

One occupational science concept that was demonstrated in the interviews with Morrie Schwartz was that of social support.  Morrie emphasized the importance of relationships and the support that his friends and family gave to him when he said "interactions and relationships maintain me and keep me up and alive."  This comment along with many others such as his response to Ted's question about if there was anything they could do for him after the first interview, to which Morrie responded that they could call him regularly and come visit him.  Cantor and Sanderson (1999) listed social support as a resource that facilitates participation in occupations and has the ability to help one overcome barriers.  This supports what was said in the Resilience book where the authors defined social support as "a category of protective factors that deal with social relationships and ties to others" (King et. al., 2003).  Social support acts as a convoy and has the ability to protect one from possible adverse outcomes.  Even the support of just one individual can serve as a protective factor.  Morrie shared life lessons he has learned as he approaches death: talk about it, keep an open heart (encompass as much as you can with your love), be alert, aware, and involved, and be compassionate.  Each of these lessons involves a social relationship or interaction with another individual and demonstrates the value that Morrie placed on social support.