The Power of Words and Stories (Pt I)
We see our lives in narrative, and frame other person’s actions in narrative. We filter all the data around us into something meaningful and useful through stories. Our stories shape our focus and reality by signaling meaning to us, be it “threat”, “opportunity,” or “uselessness.” A story might be as simple as a mantra (“this is good”) or as complex as religious and philosophical systems…both help us compensate for our ignorance and act despite our blindness (about a person, situation, or problem).
Left or right we trod our path
What is its’ end we wonder?
And should we soften up our hearts
We hear light answers muttered
Hope, curiosity, interest
We purposefully charge ahead
Fear, apprehension, anxiety
Stops us before we’re dead
We cannot delay, each day we leap
We sow our seeds of faith
Left or right we trod our path
We set an aim and pray
Is it worth it we might ask?
Whatever guides our steps
Gripped by vision or delight
Influenced, possessed — onward left or right
Affirmation keep us straight
Honors, praise, and ease
Until struck by Lady Anomaly
Robbed of map, despairing
Are such detours neutral?
We put our question to the creature
Of our mind and hearts
The hero, the story, dogma or creed
This value that I’ve sought
The wisdom that I’ve trusted
From others or myself
Are you life and light–or self-deceit & plight?
How shall we begin such a task
To assess the wisdom of our deity
Who blazed the trail we walk
And passes through the air of talk
What is the form of this thing?
Does it wish to remain unseen
Without form or name?
Are you a master or nothing?
Words unseen craft our map
Speech lights the path before us
In our ears and in our hearts
Contours of doom or hope
We imagine we have this great idea
It takes us to and fro
Animating every action
Judging pleasure, “yay,” pain, “no”
Do we have such a grand idea?
Is it ours at all?
Or does it grip us in its hand
Even guiding towards an end?
This thing, this force, this spirit
The value that trumps all others
The plot, the characters, the theme
The story we inhabit
Whatever it may be
We must admit some influential being
With power: guiding our attention
Transforming what we see
We are creatures who must act
Minutes, days and months we judge:
Threat, opportunity, rest, and “the” best
“This” is life, “that” death
How can we choose in ignorance?
We cannot know everything
So family, party, religion, or philosophy
Helps shape our maps of being
A hand guiding us some way
Calibrating pleasures
Teaching us through pain
Offering an inheritance and aim
Ancient stories set one guide apart
One literally defined as Holy
Not merely yours but for all others
Continuous and through all ages
Understanding this reality
Of hearing, seeing, and believing
Prophets issued warnings
Signpost of fear and thanksgiving
“Choose ye life or death”
The man Moses warned
“As you believe, let it be done”
Jesus the God-man said
“Make straight your way oh God and King”
The Psalmist David prayed
Knowing he was prey
To spite and sin and idolatry
We have to act: left or right
We act in faith
Religion merely makes explicit
What all man lives implicit
Inspired by J. Peterson’s Book “Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief,” reflection on words and stories, experience, and the Bible.
