I enjoyed reading Galen Strawson’s essay “I am not a story”, it gave a different view on how we tell our lives as a story, or not. That first thing that stood out to me was when he began talking about how he doesn’t think that “everyone stories themselves”. It stood out to my because I always believed that everyone had a life story, and always told it when they met someone they wanted to connect with.
Another important point he had was when he said, “At best: I doubt that what they say is an accurate description even of themselves.” This made me think a lot about how when people want to tell you their story, they can say it any way they want to. If they are trying to please you and win you over, they will tell you the best version of “their story”. But if they are already comfortable with you and not trying to impress you as much, they might tell you more of the truth. I now am realizing that people don’t tell everyone the truth about their story because it could make them look bad or maybe disappoint some.
When he said, “There is, furthermore, a vast difference between people who regularly and actively remember their past, and people who almost never do,” I began thinking about if I think about my past or not and how it affects me. I realized that I love talking about my past and my childhood, but only the good things. I rarely talk about the bad things that have happened to me or the mistakes I have made. I don’t want people, who I am trying to impress, know these things about me. I want them to know I had a great childhood and I was ‘always a good child’. This is a form of protecting myself from other people and avoiding the backlash from them.
This essay made me think a lot about my life story and how I tell it and to who. I only have told my whole life story, good and bad, to my closest friends, but not as soon as we became friends, it was months later down the road. When I meet new people, I have a whole new version. I think this is just so crazy to think about, but it is cool to think about.
