We each create our own narrative. Two people can live through the same set of circumstances and come up with wildly different versions of what happened. Our own narratives -- it's how we protect ourselves.
I sat in court yesterday, listening to stories. The woman who claimed her husband grabbed and restrained her, the man who claimed his wife had been unfaithful. Neither the grabbing husband nor the unfaithful wife was present, and I could not help but wonder what their versions would look like. It's not that I doubted the truth of the allegations (the speakers did, after all, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth); I just assumed someone else might very well take the same nuggets of truth and spin quite a different tale.
There will no doubt be an outcome of some kind in all of these cases -- including my own, I've been assured -- but the separate narratives will never be reconciled. The same set of facts will forever be distorted into two fun house mirror images that bear little resemblance to each other. And the story tellers will go their separate ways, some more convinced than others that their particular spin is airtight.
Eventually, it just won't matter. Or it shouldn't. After all, nobody stays in the fun house forever, and certainly nobody stares too long at the distorted reflections gazing out from the mirrors. Heck, ya gotta leave some time for more roller coaster rides, more tempestuous teacups, more cotton candy. Life's too short to stay stuck in one place.
Yes, the world outside the fun house can be scary. There are steep climbs and precipitous falls, dizzying ordeals, and evil temptations. Challenging and exhilarating at the same time. The stuff of life.
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