The Many Narratives of Life

A Generation generally covers 40 Years Time. At least that is the foundation of how I look over the years I’ve lived, those who have gone before me, and those who are following behind.

Today, those in the know say a generation can be as short as 20 years. Perhaps it’s because we are changing so quickly – travel, technology, knowledge, experiences… Rapidly!

For the sake of my thought, I will stay to the older interpretation of a generation.

Every millennium, century, decade, year, month, week, day, or hour, can be viewed as a snippet of time. When crisscrossed by all the possible views of participants, the narrative of a generation can be very confusing. Twirling first this way, then that way, always circling some nugget of truth like electrons around a nucleus.

Your story. Their story. And the real story.

You cannot ignore the truth, but from where you stand, you may only know a portion of the situation. It is similar to how a jury acts upon their understanding of facts presented at trial, and they determine guilt or innocence without ever knowing the full story.

Somewhere along the way, and a long, long time ago, I surmised that there are 40 sides to every story. It is almost impossible to know the whole truth, “so help you, God”… But we are often called to speak the truth as we know it, and that nugget of truth has many shades trying to hide it from view.

Throughout life, we are judged by our peers, families, and friends. With a slighted view of the whole story, people see only a portion of our personal story or situation, and from their standpoint, they become the judge, jury, prosecutor, defender, and even the gallery of watchers.

This narrative can be what we want it to be as we recite it,
but the reality is that others will take the same fact and rewrite your history
the way they see it from their own snippet of time.

Our side of the story is the most important because we take ownership of it. Even with the possibility of knowing the whole story, our DNA, culture, personality, emotions, and shaded views of the situation controls how we react to the final story.

The Truth?

Sometimes, even the truth is not good enough. We’ve pushed ourselves deeply into our personal views and can never dig out the raw facts and utter them differently. We’ve shaded the narrative to fit who we are, our worldview, and how we face the facts as we have shared.

There is a leadership team-building exercise that I’ve been a part of through the years. Take a group of people, and share a structured story or complex joke with the first person alone. Then that person whispers it to the next. Like a daisy chain, each person whispers the story to the next one in line until the last person reveals the story to the entire group.

Surprisingly or not, the story slowly dissembles, and when it reaches the end of the line, it is nothing like what began. There may be a few keywords, but the story has been adapted by each hearer of the whispered words. Sentences become shorter, the order is changed, and keywords are replaced.

Each person adapts the story to their own limited view of the facts and vocabulary.
They attempt to put the facts spoken to their ear in some order of clarity
so they can tell the next person.

This is how I feel about life in general. I watch others retell a narrative, so it fits their personality. To someone who is a hammer, everything they see is simply a nail, waiting to be pounded and slammed into the surface!

Take it one extra step. An author writes a story it says what they want it to say. But let Hollywood get a hold of it and you will think they are telling the story accurately, unless and until you read the authors original tome. Still. You know the facts only as presented to you from author or film maker, and may still not know the entire story! Everyone has the ability to shade their perception of the story from their stance in life.

Here’s My Thought Today

We can never know the entire story! Thus, there is no way we can tell even a portion of our view of the story without taking things out of context. Repeating an incorrect story takes the hearer into left field! They wander and recite the story, find themselves in the bleachers, enter the parking lot, and then in some far-off country!

Eventually, everyone shares their own shade of the truth!

Has it ever happened to you?

Even eyewitnesses to a live event will shade their version of the story based on their personal interpretation. Often, the recitation comes from their angle of sight. Their view of the facts comes into play. The hour of the day, the colors in play, and the direction of the players. Their interpretation shades the facts!

It gets almost to the point of wondering if anyone knows what happened!

For just a moment, think about the history books that have waded through the centuries of narrative, and most of them come from non-first-person reports. Or, if they record a personal version from someone there, you must consider whether that individual had all the facts or if they are simply shading their recitation from their perspective alone.

Think about it in the language script – from one tongue to another, and words change meanings across the centuries, and the spelling of those words leaves us wondering what the original story was all about!

When it comes to scripture, and if you look at all the Gospels, you must consider the author, their reason for writing, who the audience is, and what skin they have in the game. Were they eyewitnesses? Were they there? Did they understand the story from a personal perspective? Did they have all the facts? Or. Are they simply retelling a story?

This is perhaps why I will always consider the Gospel of Luke first, given my choice of story to share. He stated his position at the beginning, not as an eyewitness of the story but as one with the skills and understanding to record accurately so that it can be compared to the story already reported.

Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.
(Luke 1:1-4 NKJV)

In translation: “Many have tried to narrate, even those who witnessed with their own eyes, and ministered their story to us. It seems good to me who has “perfect understanding” of all the facts to put the story into an orderly account so that you, most excellent Theophilus, can certainly know the historical fact of the story you were taught.” ~Luke

Luke continues his narrative throughout the Gospel and on through the book of “Acts of the Apostles.” From Jesus, through the birth of the new church and the travels of the Apostle Paul, Luke gives a narrative story that covers perhaps a century of time.

The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”  
(Acts 1:1-5 NKJV)

Too often, we allow ourselves to dissolve in disbelief when many versions of a story exist. Who do I believe? How can I trust so many versions? Which one is the most trustworthy?

Here’s The Rub

We all pick a different version of a story that resonates with our minds and our level of understanding.  Each of the gospels accurately shows Jesus and his ministry on earth. From their personal perspective of witness, hearing, and recollection, they each narrate very similar events, only they shade the story from their perspective. Or, the storyline happens many times, and each writer tells a different event. Some have even suggested that each writer was penning their gospel for a specific audience and emphasizing the points needed to convince the reader of the facts.

Regardless of “mistakes” one may think they find, each gospel resonates truth to me like no recitation of any other historical event on earth. Just as the country stories (USA, Japan, UK, France, Russia, etc.) of the World Wars are shaded to their audience, I personally pick out the points that impact me at the moment of reading or speaking at some later time.

This is not a new problem! It has been around for a millennium or two. Take this poem into consideration, written about a story heard in India many centuries ago.

The Blind Men and the Elephant

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, “Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
” ‘Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

Moral:

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

~American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)

One Last Thought

The poem plays upon the blindness of the participants but should you choose any other sense (Hear, Taste, Touch, Smell), the results will always be different.

So. Know your foundation. Choose your path wisely. Recite the narrative from your perspective. But always know that we do not know the whole story yet!