The stories we tell
Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2022 7:50 pm
We tell each other, and ourselves, stories..
"I was driving into town and the car broke down"
is just a story, it might be, might be based on fact,
or it could just be a humorous story.. that only briefly
touches the truth... that is part of the pleasure of
the story we tell...sometimes, we don't even know where
our story is going to lead us.. for most of us, we, ourselves
are the hero of the story we tell...my car broke down
and by my own wit and will, I was able repair that car...
a story where I am the hero... and most of our stories are
just that.. stories with us as the hero..
but some stories we tell have nothing to do with us as being
hero's... some stories are stories of the past... Socrates
brought philosophy down from the stars/sky and turned
philosophy into being about what it means to be human..
the rightful place of the soul of man and how important that is....
That is the story of Socrates, or one of the many stories we can tell
about Socrates... as we can tell philosophical stories, Descartes
began the modern world, to stories about history... the King of France
during Descartes time was named, Louis XIV... Louis the 14th..and his
history was he was ruler of France for 72 years.. the longest king in French
history and this is what happened during his reign.. that is a story
that has had many different authors. From Voltaire to modern day
historians, all of them have told the story of Louis the 14th, and
many of them have look at various different aspects of Louis
history, the events, the laws, the state of the nation, the many wars
and battles that happened during Louis's time...we can tell Louis's
story in many diverse, different ways... and that is another truth
about our stories, we can focus on many different aspects of
every single topic we can tell a story about... for example,
how many different stories we can tell about philosophy?
A dozen, hundreds, even a thousand or perhaps even a million
different, diverse stories about philosophy... we can talk about
the who of philosophy, the when, the how, the where,
and the why of philosophy.. to be honest, I am not even sure
we can run out of stories about philosophy.. we have an unlimited
number of stories we can tell about philosophy...
Right now, I am waiting for a biography of Schopenhauer, that is just
another story about a philosopher, which has dozens of different
stories told about already... we can see Schopenhauer in terms
of his relationship with Goethe or Hegel, or how he impacted
such writers as Nietzsche or Darwin or Freud.. We can make
an endless series of stories about Schopenhauer or anyone else
for that matter...I read a lot of history, which are just more stories
about things in the past.. I read a lot of philosophy and that is just
more stories.. to read, say Kant, is to read a story about philosophy
and its past and its future possibilities..
Personally, I have plenty of stories, I can tell you of stories
of my past, or the history of the 1960's, I was there or I could
tell you a story about Watergate, or perhaps the story of
how I remember watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show,
and what that was like.. but those stories, while maybe being
true and a real history of my life, maybe not of interest to you,
because you were born in the 1990's.. when I was an adult
and married.. in the 1990's, I was in my thirties...because I
am of a certain age, I have different stories than you do,
if for no other reason than we were born in different years,
different places, different circumstances... my story has
as one of its central points, the rise and fall and rise and fall
of my social-economic status I have over the years.
my parents were very wealthy, and a few years later,
we only ate because of school lunch programs
and a few years later I was homeless and today,
I live in a million dollar condo and tomorrow, tomorrow
I could be homeless or I may have just retired, I am 63...
I have heard that the past is a good indication of the future..
but my own story denies that statement... I have been wealthy,
poor, homeless and middle class... so what story am I going to tell
about my many different and diverse roads, I have been on?
Whatever story I want... because it is my story and I can become
the hero, the victim or something in between...
So, when I tell a story about the strengths of liberalism
and the weakness of conservativism or the failure of the GOP/MAGA
party, it is, a story I have told about those things.. Does that make
my story honest, truthful or real? It is as real or honest or real
as I want it to be... or to say that another way, every single story
I/we tell, can be true or false or somewhere in the middle and I/we could
be the hero, the villain or the victim.. or somewhere in between....
"My car broke down the other day"
and a hundred, a thousand or a million stories can come from that line...
so, what story do you tell, about yourself or your history or our collective
history?
Kropotkin
"I was driving into town and the car broke down"
is just a story, it might be, might be based on fact,
or it could just be a humorous story.. that only briefly
touches the truth... that is part of the pleasure of
the story we tell...sometimes, we don't even know where
our story is going to lead us.. for most of us, we, ourselves
are the hero of the story we tell...my car broke down
and by my own wit and will, I was able repair that car...
a story where I am the hero... and most of our stories are
just that.. stories with us as the hero..
but some stories we tell have nothing to do with us as being
hero's... some stories are stories of the past... Socrates
brought philosophy down from the stars/sky and turned
philosophy into being about what it means to be human..
the rightful place of the soul of man and how important that is....
That is the story of Socrates, or one of the many stories we can tell
about Socrates... as we can tell philosophical stories, Descartes
began the modern world, to stories about history... the King of France
during Descartes time was named, Louis XIV... Louis the 14th..and his
history was he was ruler of France for 72 years.. the longest king in French
history and this is what happened during his reign.. that is a story
that has had many different authors. From Voltaire to modern day
historians, all of them have told the story of Louis the 14th, and
many of them have look at various different aspects of Louis
history, the events, the laws, the state of the nation, the many wars
and battles that happened during Louis's time...we can tell Louis's
story in many diverse, different ways... and that is another truth
about our stories, we can focus on many different aspects of
every single topic we can tell a story about... for example,
how many different stories we can tell about philosophy?
A dozen, hundreds, even a thousand or perhaps even a million
different, diverse stories about philosophy... we can talk about
the who of philosophy, the when, the how, the where,
and the why of philosophy.. to be honest, I am not even sure
we can run out of stories about philosophy.. we have an unlimited
number of stories we can tell about philosophy...
Right now, I am waiting for a biography of Schopenhauer, that is just
another story about a philosopher, which has dozens of different
stories told about already... we can see Schopenhauer in terms
of his relationship with Goethe or Hegel, or how he impacted
such writers as Nietzsche or Darwin or Freud.. We can make
an endless series of stories about Schopenhauer or anyone else
for that matter...I read a lot of history, which are just more stories
about things in the past.. I read a lot of philosophy and that is just
more stories.. to read, say Kant, is to read a story about philosophy
and its past and its future possibilities..
Personally, I have plenty of stories, I can tell you of stories
of my past, or the history of the 1960's, I was there or I could
tell you a story about Watergate, or perhaps the story of
how I remember watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show,
and what that was like.. but those stories, while maybe being
true and a real history of my life, maybe not of interest to you,
because you were born in the 1990's.. when I was an adult
and married.. in the 1990's, I was in my thirties...because I
am of a certain age, I have different stories than you do,
if for no other reason than we were born in different years,
different places, different circumstances... my story has
as one of its central points, the rise and fall and rise and fall
of my social-economic status I have over the years.
my parents were very wealthy, and a few years later,
we only ate because of school lunch programs
and a few years later I was homeless and today,
I live in a million dollar condo and tomorrow, tomorrow
I could be homeless or I may have just retired, I am 63...
I have heard that the past is a good indication of the future..
but my own story denies that statement... I have been wealthy,
poor, homeless and middle class... so what story am I going to tell
about my many different and diverse roads, I have been on?
Whatever story I want... because it is my story and I can become
the hero, the victim or something in between...
So, when I tell a story about the strengths of liberalism
and the weakness of conservativism or the failure of the GOP/MAGA
party, it is, a story I have told about those things.. Does that make
my story honest, truthful or real? It is as real or honest or real
as I want it to be... or to say that another way, every single story
I/we tell, can be true or false or somewhere in the middle and I/we could
be the hero, the villain or the victim.. or somewhere in between....
"My car broke down the other day"
and a hundred, a thousand or a million stories can come from that line...
so, what story do you tell, about yourself or your history or our collective
history?
Kropotkin