Unpacking Stories

We create a universe every time 

we tell ourselves, 

we tell one another, 

we tell our children,

we are told

a story.

Our examination of the stories

heard,

overheard,

created,

told,

must be deep 

and may even cause us discomfort.

Let us ask our stories,

our storytellers,

our selves

these questions

and more. 

Who are the protagonists?

Who are the enemies?

What are the worlds that are 

built, 

defended, 

reformed, 

destroyed?

What is the quest?

Who comes out the victor?

Who dies 

at the hands of the conquering hero,

at the hands of the dominant culture?

Who “needed” to be “saved”?

Who is the “savior”?

Where do we discover self

within the narrative arc?

What are the stories 

behind the stories 

that inform the stories we tell,

that inform the stories we are told?

What are the mythologies 

that are called truths 

embedded in our psyches

and hidden in our stories?

And then 

we must not fail

to follow each question

with a necessary

why.

If we are to grow,

to understand self,

to learn our embedded assumptions,

to unlearn our biases,

we must ask these questions 

and many more

of the stories we tell

as well as 

the stories we are told.

-bshivers