And Riessman adds one more purpose: to survive as human beings. Isak Dinesen’s famous words, cited by Hannah Arendt (1958, p. 175), cap- ture this most beautifully: “All sorrows can be borne if you can put them in a story.” It makes sense that this would be the ultimate purpose of narrative, given our nature as homo narrans—it is a fundamental property of our humanity.