Story

I am beginning to think that the original ambition of writing a blog entry each week might have been a little too ambitious.  The inspiration to write essentially comes from the heart. There is something which wants to be said and although there is thought given to how the ideas might be phrased or the argument constructed that is secondary to the inspiration behind it.  However, when you start with the head by sitting and thinking what topic to write about the experience is different.   The writing can become a task or a chore. So perhaps rather than deciding on a topic it is better to just write and see what emerges!

My intention, however, this week was to explore some of the issues raised by ‘the Harry and Megan interview’, yet there is a feeling that I really don’t want to add to the existing noise.  There are issues of class, of race, of power, of monarchy, identity, truth and falsehood, tradition and progress, media and celebrity.  Any of these aspects could fill a book in its own right.  We seem to be drawn so easily into polarities of right and wrong, blame and innocence. 

I think that all the issues are important and it is right to explore what might have gone wrong and how a better future can be created. But equally we should not be rushing to any quick conclusions or solutions. Some things just take time. I feel sad for all involved and slightly angered by the speed with which the press can hone in on a single statement to set about a search for a ‘racist’ individual.  You could discuss at length the nature of racism but the desire to add a label to any individual or institution and define them, or it, as racist, sexist, ageist or even woke for that matter,  is not helpful. We do need to understand the behaviours and language which continue to sustain division but trying to find the one person to blame removes the responsibility from the wider population to look at their own level of responsibility in all forms of prejudice and inequality …including the press.

However, the aspect I find myself most drawn to is the idea of story. We all love a good story.  We watch ‘The Crown’ on Netflix aware that this is scripted and that the writers, although claiming to be following the known facts, have stretched or manipulated  the truth to create a captivating story. But we are drawn in, and begin to absorb the narrative, believing in the characters and forming our own judgements. The power of story often lies in the unconscious, so we may not always be aware of how we have been influenced.  We have a national story and indeed we love our history with its stream of monarchs and tales of battles, plague, conquest and power. In some respects our story makes us feel safe. It gives us a sense of our roots, of belonging to this particular tribe, to the soil of this land. We delight in wandering around our old castles and stately homes imagining just what it might have been like  three, five or nine hundred years ago. But history is never just an account of things past it is constantly re-written in the light of our shifting beliefs and the story we might now like to tell of who we are and who we have been. The last fifty years has seen people settling in Britain from across the globe. Their stories may be different, but as they settle here their stories also become our stories because they are now part of our nation.  Many who are British and black feel that their story has not been told. The toppling of statues says that we might want to tell the story in a different way. This does not mean that we ignore or change historical facts but we may want to view them from a different perspective or include aspects which have previously been overlooked.

Story is also significant in our personal lives.  We have our own stories about our own lives, who we are and why we do what we do. Story is one of the ways in which we create meaning. We want it to be consistent and can feel uncomfortable if there are perceived gaps in our story. The huge rise in DNA testing is perhaps associated with our desire to extend our story to take it further back or to find others with whom we are related. For some it can complete their story as they discover who their biological parents were or where in the world their ancestral roots lie.

Story helps us to make sense of our world. But sometimes stories need to change. Arguably the British Monarchy has been successful  and survived because of its ability to change its story. I think it is in need of a 21st century narrative. But we also need to be able to look at our own stories with some objectivity and perhaps, if we are to live peacefully together in a rapidly changing world, we need to be much more sensitive to the stories of others.