When our kids were little, we watched Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service and Totoro over and over. As the years have passed, these stories have become central to our family culture. Unlike Disney movies, these movies had no villain, and not a lot of conflict.

In very broad strokes: In western storytelling, a hero is called away from ordinary life into an extraordinary story (think Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings). Defeating an external villain is typically central to his growth.

In contrast, in Eastern storytelling, a protagonist has a set of experiences in which she discovers a new perspective. In Kishōtenketsu, there is no need for a monster or villain, and growth is all about seeing the mundane in new ways.

The stories we tell are absorbed into our culture. What if we choose new stories? Could these actually change our cultures as we grow together. I do not mean that one type of storytelling is better than another. Rather, I want to explore the idea that instead of external conflict being necessary for growth, we can instead observe the conflict within ourselves, and find creative and gentle approaches to growth.

In growing, and in studying the food system, a few narratives come to mind: One is the narrative in which Big Food and Big Ag are the key villains of our age. I see the extraordinary harm of the large companies controlling the food system. Yet these large companies are made up of people like you and me, making small, daily decisions that have amounted to big harm. I see the ways that I am intertwined with those decisions-- for example, every time I purchase animal feed or go to the supermarket.

I wonder if considering ways to influence these small, daily decisions, rather than defeating the monster, will lead to interesting changes? For example, steadily creating alternative norms, to show that the actions of Big Ag are neither inevitable nor best for people or planet?

The second is a story where someone learns about alternative health, permaculture, biodynamic farming, or agroecology in a kind of conversion experience, perhaps through an expensive course. In this experience, other kinds of growing or knowing become the villain to be defeated, and a learning opportunity is lost. Not because these frameworks of knowing are not valuable and important, but because we begin to inhabit a story of us/them, and our minds actively exclude the more mundane gradations of our lives. What if, instead, we can imagine the full range of growing choices, and begin to shift norms without being evangelical about our own experiences?

The third are the stories in which specific enemies are identified and become the focus of our story: a weed, a pest, an “alien invasive.” Again, these are often real and difficult challenges. Yet a story that relies to heavily on our own heroism and the reaction to an external evil may fail to see the shortcomings inside of ourselves. Yet it is our own shortcomings that are within our power to change.

What if our growing journey can be a story of learning in community, of learning to see anew? In this story, we are always learning and growing, and no-one is excluded from our journey because they have been cast in the role of villain. Growth is available to all of us.

Here’s to growth as we enter December! I’d love to hear how you’re growing.

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