In the 1800s, short stories were published in magazine
publications as an attempt to describe the wide variety of American culture,
not simply to entertain readers. Different writers from different regions of
the nation would use these works of fiction to describe the culture, the
landscape, the philosophy, the faith, and the people of their regions. When
these stories were tied together, they formed a tapestry of America—a picture
suspended for the rest of the world to see and marvel at the complexity and
depth of American life.
Today, the world is very, very different. We have
centralized media, and we all share many of the same influences nationwide and
even worldwide. We no longer have gaps so wide between the regional cultures of
our nation. Or we see them less, at least, because we tend to focus on the
elements we all share. We watch the same movies; we use the same social
networking sites; we play the same videogames; we listen to the same music; we
even read the same books (generally because television tells us what to read).
In many ways, our regions, our cities, our families, even our individual lives
are aligned in very similar patterns, not because we are uniform deep down, but
because we have the tendency to allow these aspects we all share to consume
such large portions of our time.
It's time we get back to examining the differences in our
stories and the stories of those around us and discover the ways we can help
each other grow. What is it about our individual lives that can contribute to a
grander, more interesting story of the world? If we take our eyes off of our
finely tuned, incessantly edited, entirely unrealistic “newsfeeds” and really
look and listen to the people around us, we might discover that the holistic
story of a person is much more complex than the chiseled bits of information we
can get in 140 characters or less.
I am not here to slam social networking. It has become an
inseparable part of the modern story. I am, however, suggesting that we relegate
it to the small position it (along with every other component of our lives)
should hold and start telling and experiencing the whole story
of humankind.
With that said, here are a few reasons we should all start
paying more attention to the stories we are sharing and experiencing in the
real world, not just the digital one:
- People will not care about your life story until your life has affected their story.
The truth is that most people care first and foremost about
themselves. Not necessarily in a selfish way, but people first relate to
themselves. When it comes to seeing and understanding the world around them,
their own minds are ground zero. Their own experiences build the foundation
upon which they layer the opinions and experiences of others. They will process
everything about you through the lens of their own stories. No one can simply
unzip his or her skin, crawl inside of yours, and live life through your eyes
for a day. Empathy only goes so far, but we can create environments for
relating and growing with people by making positive impacts on their stories.
If we first show a depth of interest in someone’s story by
asking about the events, characters, and experiences that have formed the
person he or she is today, we are primed to receive enriching responses in
addition to inquiries about our own story. But it doesn’t stop there. If we go
out of our way to discover how we can contribute positive new experiences and
ideas to this person’s story, both stories are changed for the better and
changed forever.
The blunt reality is that most people are not inherently
interested in you, but many will be interested as soon as you show interest in
them. Be the kind of person who takes the initiative. Care about the stories of
those around you, so that the whole story can get better. You are the
protagonist of your own story, but you might be an antagonist to someone else
and not even know it. It is a sobering thought, but you will only be supporting
character at best in the stories of all those around you. So, start asking what
role you are playing right now in the stories of those you know. What
role could you be playing? It matters.
- You are living a story. Its content is up to you.
Someone someday will tell some aspect of your story. How
much of your story, what kind of story it is, and how many people tell it is
largely up to you. We need to put some serious thought into the legacies we are
leaving behind. It’s obvious that this train of thought isn’t chugging through
the minds of many modern Americans. We say we want big things from the future
and that we want to make huge impacts on the world. What we forget is that
those huge impacts are comprised of single, twenty-four hour days. We write our
stories line by line, day by day, second by second, not in large
chunks at a time. Each and every moment we live and breathe is a contribution
to the overarching legacy we leave behind.
People will speak of the monumental events, the glorious
victories, the gut wrenching defeats, the most dramatic episodes of your life.
What most stories leave out is the hours upon hours of personal discipline,
daily practice, and steady plodding the hero does to reach those lofty
aspirations. So many Americans desire the life-defining moments, but disregard
the abundance of daily life that those magnificent moments define. We have to
come back to a belief in the greatness of small stories: the hardworking men
who stay committed to their crafts and the protection and support of their
families, the strong, dedicated women who shape our culture with skillful
hands, the ordinary people who finish well, even if they don’t finish at the
top of the food chain. Some of the most profound stories are not about the
people who traveled to distant lands or left footprints on the peaks of the tallest
mountains, but the people who learned to love, grow, and build on the humble
soil of their youth.
Whatever the story, there is no such thing as too mundane.
There is no such thing as an irrelevant story. If you live in the world, you
are changing it, like it or not. Your defining moments will be birthed out of
your committed life. People will tell of your accolades, but they will know and
love you for your consistency.
- Your story is worth telling.
There are so many people in this world with no idea about
the direction they wish to travel. So, instead of plunging into the terrifying
world of self-discovery, many of us just pick a person we like or respect (or
even worse, a person we fear) and just retrace his or her story line as closely
as possible. To be frank, this world doesn’t need a single person twice, no
matter how great his achievements or charismatic her personality. This world
needs you to be you. There are pages in the history of the world waiting to be
filled with your life, not the false life of someone you are attempting to be,
or the life someone else wants you to live. You have the right and the responsibility to
be unapologetically yourself.
You are the protagonist in your story, and as long as you
are alive, you are sitting in the middle of the rising action, the conflict, or
the climax of your epic tale. Your story matters; it is leading somewhere. No
matter how it started, no matter how it has progressed, if you are reading
this, then you have not reached the end. Keep telling it.
....
Someone once said, “To be in a viable culture is to be bound
in a set of connecting stories…” To be a human being is to do more than tell a
story; it is to live a story. We need to strive to become the kind of
characters others relate to and learn from. Let’s be the characters with the
best character. Let’s stop telling the same story everyone else is telling and
live our own. Let’s pry or eyes away from the silver screens long enough to see
the golden settings, the colorful symbolism, and shades of theme constituting
the backdrop of the greatest tales we will ever tell—our own.