Stories

After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.

~ Phillip Pullman

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I like that idea.  That stories are what we need after nourishment, shelter and companionship.  It puts a new spin on the hierarchy of needs.  Stories matter.  Stories change.  We can't ever know everyone else's stories.  Which is good.  That would be a heavy burden to bear.  Plus, even if we could hear and hold everyone else's stories, we probably couldn't really make meaning of them without having the lived experience of each individual.

I can make meaning of your lived experience only through the lens of my lived experience.  It's a good meaning, but not the only meaning and probably not the "truest" meaning.  But then our truths are subjective, too, right?  

I do believe that every life has a story and a moral and lessons and warnings and gifts.  As for yours, well, I don't know the moral of the story because I don't know the story.

As for mine, well, you wouldn't get it.

It's pretty awesome, though.  I'll just leave it at that.