A Fable of Truth and the Nuance in Storytelling

When I was younger, I felt nostalgic for a time when families and communities told stories that passed on from generation to generation. The lessons and values that communities wanted to impart on the next generation were embedded into the stories and for me, it was easy to track how ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ was taught. As humans who live in an increasingly data-driven world, we attempt to shield ourselves from what we perceive to be fiction-based storytelling and instead focus on ‘the facts and science’. In reality, facts are often created to justify the stories we tell ourselves. Stories often come before facts and understanding that may allow us to understand how to rewrite the story of humanity for the future.

When I studied journalism in university, I learned that the stories we share today are as telling, if not more pervasive, than in previous generations. Although storytelling takes a new form — in our daily communication, in the news we read, in the speeches we hear — and perhaps isn’t as obvious as stories being told around a campfire, our inherent beliefs and values in our society come through each of our interactions. These stories have been shared through culture groups, left or right-wing media, schools, parenting and more channels. In journalism, I was taught to be as fact-based as possible and prided myself in fact-checking and ensuring the stories I told were balanced. But as a biased human being (like all of us), I crafted a narrative, chose the people I would interview and chose the words I was using in each piece that mirrored my feeling or belief towards that story. I fact-checked all of my stories, but the submission or omission of facts was completely on me. No matter how self-critical I tried to be by setting up processes to self-check myself to create unbiased pieces, I struggled unless I added no color or quotes into my pieces and wrote on exactly what happened (and let’s face it, these aren’t the stories people are interested in).

So is the goal to continue trying to become as unbiased as possible and become more robotic? Even robots have proven to be biased and part of our existence as a learning species is to have bias and assumptions to understand the world around us. And if the goal is a healthier, happier world with less suffering, then understanding how we create that is key. What we actually have control over is to become aware of our bias and the stories that we heard from our childhood, our society, our friends and family today, and understand how by believing those stories, we may be creating suffering in ourselves and others.

Some of the stories that I heard growing up (directly or indirectly) that I’ve begun questioning include:

• Rags to riches: I must suffer and sacrifice every day in order to create the life I want and be happy.
• Taking care of others before taking care of myself is a virtue. Taking care of yourself first is selfish.
• The amount of money I make and have is a sign of my importance and self-worth.
• Keep my mouth shut and do good work. My work will speak for itself.
• Don’t rock the boat and talk about race. Accept what’s there.
• There is a difference between those who believe in religion (creationism) vs those who believe in science (evolution). There’s no in-between.

There are so many more stories that I’ve embodied subconsciously. By understanding that to rewrite the stories we tell in our society starts from the individual, I’ve begun a practice each week to question and reflect on these stories and how they hurt or help myself and others. I also reflect on the kind of stories I want to tell myself so the world around me can be healthy, happy, compassionate and loved.

The rewriting starts with each of us — not the media, not the politicians, but the individual. It requires time for deep introspection, reflection and self-awareness mixed with compassion so that we can create more understanding and reduce the suffering in ourselves and the world around us. As Annie Dillard says, ‘How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.’