The World of Stories
Ever since I could make even a little sense of the words thrown around (and at) me, there’s one thing that has never failed to grab my attention: Stories. Growing up, almost every night, my dad would narrate short stories to me before sleep. Long after he fell asleep, I would lie in my bed, thinking about the characters and the storyline. Although the kind of stories I consumed gradually grew with me, if there is one thing that I remember from those story telling sessions is that, it ingrained in me, a deep sense of wonder about the world of stories.
I look around me, only to see stories floating around like bubbles. Going beyond the obvious (like books, movies and art) If we happen to pay close attention, everywhere we go, we are sold a narrative.
Brands make us believe our need for their product by building a story around it. Educators, while introducing new concepts, use stories as a lubricant to reduce the friction between our rigid minds and the new idea. The songs we listen to (more often than not) are musical portrayals of the songwriter’s experiences. Religious traditions, are just inherently evolved stories, passed on to us with little tweaks here and there.
And the biggest of all — Social Media! I believe one of the primary reasons why we are hooked to social media platforms, is because it lets us build a dreamy narrative around our lives. We get to recount our experiences as a series of events, modified to our liking, and we have an audience lapping up every single thing we say! Does it get better than this?
Recently, a friend of mine was telling me about her fight with her sister, and midway into the conversation, I observed that, without her realizing it, she was telling it like a story. She started with a setup by giving me context about the issue, then she moved on to the meaty part- the actual conflict, and finally, her describing the way they resolved the issue made for the perfect climax. This made me realize, that as idealistic as it may seem, we are enamored by the very idea of an abstract concept having a beginning, middle and an end. The possibility of getting closure on every idea opened, feels too good to be true.
Over the years, I’ve come to realize that human beings are inherently empathetic creatures. Although our forms of expressions differ, we tend to process emotions in very similar ways.
We share a common base when it comes to experiences and when we hear stories, we are drawn to imagining ourselves in those situations. Which brings me to my next observation — creating our own little stories! Almost everyone I know or have interacted with, has confessed to have imagined and reimagined scenarios and spiraled down endless trips of ‘What Ifs ’ in their minds. This just further solidifies the fact that our intrinsic need for alternative possibilities to our own current reality, is satiated through the stories that we tell ourselves.
I feel that we are in a constant state of a need for escapism, and stories act like a perfect escape. They make us feel like we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We live through stories without realizing we’re a part of them, and you know what the best part is? Stories are constructs that can be reconstructed, so go ahead — observe, create, erase and recreate your own little fantasy world.
