Salman Rushdie wrote of a sea of stories. It was a beautiful concept - that of many stories drifting in the ocean as they merge, mutate, evolve and grow.
It is easy to imagine our lives as stories. Stories of real people and how they lived. Stories that emerge, evolve, breathe and grow. Stories that are authored by chance and choice. Stories that make us and the stories that we make. It is fascinating to listen to people and their stories.
I have often wondered what would be the one superhuman ability I would want to have If i could. And while I have often favored invisibility over many of the others, mind reading has been the topping the list for a while now. Mind reading - not to know what others are thinking or what they plan to do but more to know their story. To know what their life was and how it has changed over the years. When I look around me, I see these people from diverse backgrounds and each with his/her own story, large parts of which are somehow buried in the sands of time. Stories of sickness and health, stories of refugee camps and battles, stories of friends and families, stories of travel and rest, stories of fun and disaster, stories of choices and decisions, betrayal and trust... It is unbelievable how much we learn about a person when we know his story.
It is also amazing that knowing the whole story doesn't lead us to judge him. Instead, seeing the whole picture gives greater perspective. It helps us see the person for what he is and for what life has made out of him. We stop judging people based on what they did yesterday or what they said the day before, because we see their whole lives in perspective. I wish I could just hear their lives and their stories... just to see a bigger picture. To see their present in the context of their past and to imagine their future knowing the whole.
No comments:
Post a Comment