Moral of the story

Narrative is often more effective than facts in helping us understand and behave well towards others.

'Once upon a time..." tells us a story is about to begin, but in this case it's a brief story about stories. I don't need to tell you that stories are important. While the words change, there are versions of "once upon a time" pretty much everywhere, hinting at the universality of a good yarn. The "interwebs" tell me some of the earliest books mass-produced in Europe in the 1400s were German folk tales and the fables attributed to ancient Greek slave and storyteller Aesop. This is quite a coincidence, because I'm writing this, jet-lagged, at 5am in Athens after a slightly disrupted First Big Flight After Covid-19. More on that another time.