What if there is no story?
A friend asked me this question…have years passed since he asked me this question?
I’ve carried the question
noodled the question
lived the question
What if there is no story?
In early days, I could not fathom an answer.
No story…but, but, but
my life is built on my stories
they define who I am
they define how I think
they define what I do
Oh!
My stories…are like a cage?
Yesterday I watched
The Danger of a Single Story—a TED talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
a very thought provoking talk
The speaker tells a story…of her lifetime encounters with single stories.
an African child raised on Western literature, a middle class child who held a single story about her poor house boy, an African student whose American roommate held a single story about Africans, an African who traveled to Mexico and was ashamed to find she’d held a single story about Mexicans
What if there is no story?
Was the speaker telling another story to define herself?
After watching the talk, I recognized I manage my life with 100s, 1000s, or more? of single stories. There is a limited amount of space and computational power in my organic computer.
What you can’t understand, you won’t understand. ~ Lee Thayer
Where I sit with What if there is no story? today is…
If I am present, curious, questioning, and not taking my self too seriously…is that a step toward living without stories?
And, can I remember in conversation that others might not be noodling What if there is no story?
How might that improve my communication?
Well, this is new! Commenting on my own post...
What I want to add is...I see no shame in holding a single story. Our challenge is to be open to receiving new inputs...as individuals and groups.
Are you your story? What role do you play in the story of you?