At some point in
my life, someone told me that everything in life is sales. I do not agree.
Everything is fiction.
Everything is fiction
because our lives are much affected
by fiction. Or better, because the way we perceive
our lives has everything to do with fiction.
I mean, the stories we heard in childhood have created
templates in our minds. And when we
miss some of the facts in a situation, these templates help us fill these gaps.
For instance, this happens when we look upon a situation and we try to impose a
plot on it. And why is that?
Because
we have got used to look at situations the way we look at stories.
But most of the
times we forget that there may not be any underlying plot, and so we read more into
the situation than there really is. This can lead to terrible misunderstandings
and confusion.
A case in point:
imagine a very beautiful girl, and her stepmother. The stepmother does not like
the girl. What is happening in your mind when I tell you this story? Do you
imagine a wicked stepmother that tries to emulate, belittle, and even kill the
girl? If I mention to you that a horrible accident has happened, which thoughts
come first to your mind? That the girl is the villain, or the other way round?
Now try to
remember moments in your life when your thoughts were shaped by means of the
stories you know. Did you read more into
the situation than there really was? Did you use knowledge from stories in
order to fill the gaps?
Stories are stories. Nothing more. Sometimes they help us understand
things, sometimes they don’t. Some stories were created a long time ago, but
now things have changed. Women do not wait for the Prince Charming. Or does
society expect them to do so?
Do you follow any stories without realising
it? Do they shape your mind for you?
Why not choose which stories we’ve got to keep,
and which stories we should give up?
And then create new stories. Stories in which we
are winners, we are creative, we are the best we can be.
