are we telling stories, or are stories telling us?
Transcript of this video:
Twenty-five or so years ago, I found myself in the back
of a four-seater single-engine light aircraft
being piloted by a couple of Japanese flying students.
And I was in the back a few thousand feet above
the famous Victoria Harbour of Vancouver
at night as
below us a gigantic firework display was in process.
And we were only one
of several aircraft flying over this display
for our pleasure in a circle.
It was, if you like, a flying circus.
And I remember sitting in the back of the aircraft thinking
what a great story this would be to tell people,
but also realising that the actual experience was
a bit, meh. I was a bit out of it.
I’d taken this trip in the middle
of a fairly existential crisis in my life
and I was having difficulty staying present
to anything that was happening.
So there’s different stories here, aren’t there,
or different ways of telling them.
And as I was thinking about that experience this morning,
I also recalled another flying
experience, which was a bit different.
I was flying to New Zealand in the back of a large jet,
flying there for the first time.
I was coming to the end of 24 hours in the air.
And, and I don’t know about you,
but I find those long journeys simultaneously
exciting and deadly dull.
But I had beautiful pop classical music coming in my ears
and I didn’t know that when you fly
to the South Island new in New Zealand,
you come in over these very dramatic mountains
that are called the Southern Alps.
And so I had this magical moment of hearing dramatic music
and descending into the land, into the land of Lord
of the Rings, or at least the film set of Lord
of the Rings at the beginning of a big adventure.
And that was much more exciting.
And I wasn’t thinking for a moment about this would make a
good story to tell people.
And I’m fascinated by our relationships
to the stories we tell themselves.
Do they, do they really connect to our experience?
Do they really allow us to connect to each other?
Are we using them simply as tools,
as people in business like to say as devices?
And when we do, are we allowing ourselves real contact?
Photo by Melanie Hughes on Unsplash
