Stories

Stories are everywhere.  They are the warp and weft of the fabric of our lives.  All stories whether labeled fact or fiction contain substantial components of both. 

Scientists like to think their work and writings represent fact, to the exclusion of fiction.  In fact, their science wouldn't exist without the human perspective each one of them carries and reveals to the rest of us.  Sometimes this story is reflected plainly in their science.  Other times, the story is better hidden but is never the less to be found plainly, at the very least in the building of the context for their flavor of science.  You can never get away from story no matter how fast and hard you run.

Artists can embrace story to the exclusion of reality.  This misses the fact that story cannot exist without reality.  Without reality, there would be nothing to write a story about.  The surest way to convince yourself of your story's need to embrace reality is to stub your tow on your metal bed frame.  "WOW.  THAT HURTS!"  Lesson over, end of (this) story.

The point is that you ignore either story or reality at your great peril.  Every drop of reality has to live in a story and every story is located in reality.  (And by the way, what I'm saying here is actually consistent with the last hundred or so years of quantum physics.  For more information, first tell your family you'll be gone for a couple years and start by googling Schrodinger's Cat.  That will likely take you places that will change the way you look at reality...into something that looks a bit like human story +  reality.)

We often tell ourselves stories.  We tell ourselves stories about people and things we love but often we tell ourselves stories about things and people we loathe as well.  These stories serve to reinforce our opinions and experiences and prop up our self esteem, among other things.  I'm learning that there are a great many stories that I don't need to tell myself anymore.  I'm learning that it can be much better to listen to the stories of others and respond to them than to have to constantly generate my own.

God certainly understands story.  He invented it (it's pretty much automatic once you create time).  Of course, it's also true that he authored us and our ability to create stories of our own.  Additionally, in the Old Testament, he inserted himself into the narrative here and there and even withdrew himself on occasion.  In the New Testament, he came to live in the narrative.  ("...and the Word became flesh...")  He introduced himself to humanity in the person of Jesus.  Then bought a room in each of us, paid in full on the cross.  The only thing we needed to do starting at that point was to put out a vacancy sign, announcing our emptiness. This part is a story about vacancy and filling the vacancy. 

I was on the railroad tracks yesterday, near the place that's pictured above left.  There I saw a guy with a sleeping bag and a tarp coming a ways off.  First thing I did was tell myself a story based on my past story.  It was something about, "OK, remember to keep a bit of distance to give yourself time to respond physically if you need to.  Keep half an eye on his hands.  Be nice."  That last part was a combination of non-sequitur mixed with a generous portion of autobiographical fiction. 

As I got closer, Sleeping Bag Guy (the character's name) must have told himself a story too.  He put his stuff down, just outside the tracks and sat down on a rail, staring at the ground in front of him.  I considered how useless my story had been when compared to the reality in which it lived.  As I got closer, the "Be nice" part of the story became less fictional.  When I got close I said, "Hey man.  How you doing?"  He continued staring at the ground, never moved his eyes, never spoke.  I'm guessing he was so distracted telling himself a story of equal parts history, pain and fantasy that it crowded out reality completely.  I didn't see him on my way back.  The part of my story with him in it is over for now.

And that all points to the most important parts of the stories we tell ourselves.  Our stories must be rooted in the deeper stories we care about, the deepest being the story of vacancy followed by residency.  We have to work to make sure our stories carry healthy amounts of our own stories and at the same time, the toe stubbing reality that happens "out there."  We have to remember that stories change.  And we have to give God and each other the grace and acceptance to be able to tell their stories in our lives.