It is your choice.
It is your story.
Every inspiring story develops out of mundane details of simple day to day living. It’s not extravagance complexity or heroism that tell the story and miracle of life so much as it is the ordinary everyday moments that add up to something. The sound a humming bird makes when it hovers almost silently in front of a flower, the feel that the first drop of rain hitting your forehead makes after a hard day of rockclimbing, a word or phrase heard in an unknown song from an unknown source, an old friend emailing to say hi. These are the things life is made of; these are the ordinary translated into the extra-ordinary.
Of course every story has its own hidden and subversive story – the skeleton in the closet, the secret hopes, the deep wounds, embarrassing passion. Every beautiful narrative is coupled with risk victory and failure that, if unleashed, has potential to ruin or succeed even the wildest dreams.
Stories.
Where are our stories?
Why do we chose to hide them?
Maybe because nobody is listening. Does it seem that maybe the only stories people are interested in are the ones that are about themselves? The great and lasting stories simply tell the same story over and over and over and over……again. These are the recognizable and deeply personal stories. These are the stories where we sense something significant is happening but are more caught in the story then in the significance. These are the great stories.
This is our story.
10 comments:
wow...
very...
ethreal.
ummm....
so can i be honest.. the last line was very.. i've read this on the back of a novel or movie..
it made me smile.. cringe and say.. oh jer.. your a romantic at heart.
however.. i won't lie.. this has CAUGHT ... my atttention.
winnipeg is booming. im not sure whether this is still home or not.
love and peace dude.
jef.
Stories are a funny thing. If you sit and listen to the stories most people tell, it is like history of ancient civilizations where we project positive images of ourselves. I was a hero here, I have succeded and this is how. Where do we learn to tell stories like this? I think the stories I most identify with are those of struggle and through that struggle some lesson is extracted through the squeezing crushing? Such makes up the majority of life, and perhaps the real story. I've heard people say that you'll never learn anything in the good times. Feels like I've been learning a lot lately.
Peace
Jef - I think your right...the last line is over the top cheesy. I regret writing it......what the heck was I thinking???
Good question/thought Boomer...
"Where do we learn to tell stories like this" I think part of it is the whole idea that people always remember 'the good old days'. Unfortunately, these seem to be pretty clouded stories/memories (ex. Israel in the desert remember Egypt) and people don't want to tell them. I often use the phrase 'remember well' >>> this doesn't mean 'remember the good things' but rather, 'have an acurate memory'.
"I've heard people say that you'll never learn anything in the good times. Feels like I've been learning a lot lately." You ok?
-Jer
Why don't we remember well? Maybe like Jer said we don't think anyone is listening. Maybe we think our stories are uninteresting, as if there is nothing to tell of significance and so we don't keep track of them. Maybe we're waiting for the grandiose before we believe there is something to document and tell.
Maybe we're not watching other people's stories unfold and seeing the epic that is within the mundane.
Dad - I am looking forward to hearing some of those stories that grandma told you...Hope you're having fun in the 'Peg! Happy 30th anniversary btw!
Jaime - it was Tyndale, not York. Definitly a small world!
According to Psychologists we remember things based on cues that trigger our memory. Our memory also depends on the distinctiveness of the event we're trying to remember, if our mood is the same as when the event happened, if we're in the same context, and the strength of the emotional response the event evoked. Most people, after a certain period of time and disuse, depending on the event, will remember the event or story inaccurately but are still 100% confident that they have it right. That's the number one reason why innocent people have wrongfully been put in jail in Canada and the U.S. That kind of makes me wonder if most of the stories I hear or tell are even true. I'm not even sure if remembering something accurately for a long period of time is even possible. But then again do our stories need to be accurate if our version of it is what's meaningful to us?
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh.
so hence.... personal fiction.
(that sounds like a great movie name.)
jeffrey.
hey jer.
i have a question... actually... a questions... for everyone..
check it out.
www.ansloos.blogspot.com
about ... the story of money?
:)
jef.
Esther - that certainly is an interesting point. The things we believe to be true are more important then what actually is true??
What about false memories....say for example....some kind of abuse. The abuse is a false memory (maybe even planted by someone) but it breaks up a family and puts an innocent father in jail? What is more important then? The significance of the memory (or false memory) or the truth of it?
Much of our memories have everythign to do with our perspective. Stories can be retold from another perspective and more truth can be discovered and maybe more accuratley a more redemptive light can be shed on even the darkest of stories.
Change your image[perspective] and you change your life. Image is everything.
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