Story Tellers vs. Story Dwellers
I have come to realize in this life that there really are only two types of people in this world. Of course, there is going to be a difference of opinion in any kind of generalization like this, but if I may elucidate, I will go on to describe exactly what I mean.
It is possible, I feel, to categorize individuals into one of two areas: story tellers and story dwellers. The first group, story tellers, live their lives to tell stories. Sure, every person has his or her own life to live, but these people spend a great deal of their time reminiscing about others, relating oral history of past events or people. These people would be the historians, the newscasters, the journalists of the world. These people are the authors, filmmakers, actors, musicians (in a sense) who are put on this earth to tell stories other than their own. They act out stories or they put them on a screen for people to watch or write it down in poetry and sing it or publish it.
Story tellers find their true calling in relaying the history and ideas of others, and while in some sense it might be their own, they don't do it for themselves, they tell the story for others to hear.
The other types of people are story dwellers. These people live in the story. They are the story. People who go through life without much sense of cause or purpose and wind up being a major story in the news, maybe by winning the lottery or climbing to the roof of a building with a sniper rifle or driving mistakenly onto a bridge that is about to collapse. These are the celebrities who litter the tabloids with their escapades, the no-names who get their name in the paper for killing somebody or rescuing a cat from a tree. These are all the people who died unnecessarily, while others survived to tell the story: the victims of the Holocaust and World War II, September 11, Darfur, even Jesus Christ. These people, for some reason or another, for better or worse, cannot resist the spotlight. It might not be by their own choice, but they do not spend their thoughts and time telling the stories of others, but instead become the story themselves, enraptured in whatever activity that would make them subject of a story for someone else to tell.
It happens on all scales, great and small, from the most prominent world-changing event to the promiscuous girl in high school, who's behavior is the talk of a group of boys in the hallway. Her story is told by others, perhaps unfairly, perhaps even unknowingly to her.
The stories are there, and someone is going to tell them if you don't. If you realize that you aren't the one telling the story, then you might very well be the story.
This may be a bold statement to make, saying that every person fits into one of these two categories. Of course, there are going to be exceptions. This is life. However, in my experiences, I've come to this conclusion, and I think it is fitting in all areas of life. It may not be a thing of choice, a particular path a person chooses to go down. Maybe it is just the nature of things. Life creates natural situations where some people will go on to become a great story, and the rest stay behind to tell the tale.
It is possible, I feel, to categorize individuals into one of two areas: story tellers and story dwellers. The first group, story tellers, live their lives to tell stories. Sure, every person has his or her own life to live, but these people spend a great deal of their time reminiscing about others, relating oral history of past events or people. These people would be the historians, the newscasters, the journalists of the world. These people are the authors, filmmakers, actors, musicians (in a sense) who are put on this earth to tell stories other than their own. They act out stories or they put them on a screen for people to watch or write it down in poetry and sing it or publish it.
Story tellers find their true calling in relaying the history and ideas of others, and while in some sense it might be their own, they don't do it for themselves, they tell the story for others to hear.
The other types of people are story dwellers. These people live in the story. They are the story. People who go through life without much sense of cause or purpose and wind up being a major story in the news, maybe by winning the lottery or climbing to the roof of a building with a sniper rifle or driving mistakenly onto a bridge that is about to collapse. These are the celebrities who litter the tabloids with their escapades, the no-names who get their name in the paper for killing somebody or rescuing a cat from a tree. These are all the people who died unnecessarily, while others survived to tell the story: the victims of the Holocaust and World War II, September 11, Darfur, even Jesus Christ. These people, for some reason or another, for better or worse, cannot resist the spotlight. It might not be by their own choice, but they do not spend their thoughts and time telling the stories of others, but instead become the story themselves, enraptured in whatever activity that would make them subject of a story for someone else to tell.
It happens on all scales, great and small, from the most prominent world-changing event to the promiscuous girl in high school, who's behavior is the talk of a group of boys in the hallway. Her story is told by others, perhaps unfairly, perhaps even unknowingly to her.
The stories are there, and someone is going to tell them if you don't. If you realize that you aren't the one telling the story, then you might very well be the story.
This may be a bold statement to make, saying that every person fits into one of these two categories. Of course, there are going to be exceptions. This is life. However, in my experiences, I've come to this conclusion, and I think it is fitting in all areas of life. It may not be a thing of choice, a particular path a person chooses to go down. Maybe it is just the nature of things. Life creates natural situations where some people will go on to become a great story, and the rest stay behind to tell the tale.
posted by Leland J. Fischer at 10:51 PM
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