National Association for Interpretation

Moving Beyond Treeline and Other Stories: Inspiration for Interpreters offers stories that focus on how we can sustain ourselves given a professional trend toward engagement with uncomfortable interpretation. The stories were chosen to help guide a shift toward a “real live movement” as National Association for Interpretation Executive Director Paul Caputo noted, “committed to being a force for good, and there’s no looking back.” The stories shed light on the complexities of where we find ourselves in this moment of increasingly challenging circumstances.

Each of the stories in this collection employ Sam Ham’s TORE (Theme, Organized, Relevant and Enjoyable) framework in which interpretation is designed strategically with a theme, is organized, is relevant, and is enjoyable. They also employ the various principles first generated by Enos Mills and Freeman Tilden in their attempts to relate the material to the audience, reveal deeper meanings, and provide provocation to think more deeply about something or do something differently. Finally, the stories showcase universal principles from National Park Service leader David Larsen at the 2000 NAI national conference in Tucson, Arizona. Universal concepts that include opposites such as contemplation and action, solitude and community, work and leisure, victory and defeat, good and evil, life and death. Other universal concepts employed include freedom, patriotism, companionship, suffering, justice, responsibility, kindness, courage, joy, and love.