The Danger of a Single Story

"This is a phenomenal discourse on the power structures of the world and the stories that shape our humanity. What she likens to power, I have always believed as privilege. Those who have power have the privilege to not only decide the stories to tell, but the privilege to dictate the narrative and narrators. There is a singleness of story, told of all disavowed, disenfranchised and oppressed ppls. That singleness, when swallowed by those without privilege, creates a vacuum in which their power goes. It is a cycle, a vicious cycle...it can be broken when the powerless and those who do not possess privilege---the power of story selection---choose and force their additional stories to be heard…" by me on fB...

Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story
That original statement was before my “ah ha” moment, thank God for a good friend. I had to re-watch this. I was looking at the geopolitical and political social economy of this story…the abstract ideas and larger picture. I like big pictures, abstracts, analysis of metrics and rubrics. Power structures and displacement of liberties, morality, the shifting of mores and norms within the larger proletariat and society at large, intrigue me. I like logic and reasoning.

I was having a convo with my friend and she made a passing statement that struck me as profound. In life, we allow the single stories of and in our lives to shape who we are, what we see, what we do. I can say that I have allowed a broken family, sexual abuse, physical abuse, my own beliefs of personal failure, AND the birth of my child to hinder me. Those singular stories, I had made the only story in my life. The reality is there is more to each of those stories---overlapping stories.

Many times we allow the narrative dictated by others to change our course; but most times, we ourselves say what we can't do, rather than, empower what we can do. There is always more than one side to a story, because stories are based on nuance. When we limit ourselves to one story, we limit our existence to a one-dimensional, stagnant place that lacks relevance, variance and ultimately the power to change. It blocks our pursuit of our dreams, our visions, our purpose, our fulfillment.

Others cannot be the narrator of our story because we may have changed from whence they were involved in the plot. We cannot allow others to write our stories because language and usage is powerful and important to how a story is received and thus internalized. We cannot let others interpret our story, because only we know what the story is really about and how it really happened.

I'm not sure, if you have a story that needs retelling, rewriting, or expanding; if you do I would ask that you retell it, rewrite it, elaborate on it. It may help somebody or heal someone. Never be afraid to tell YOUR story, in YOUR voice, in YOUR way. Your story may be intrinsically different, but it is never unique. You never know who you reach, who you touch, who you heal with the simple telling of a story. The small things of others are the profound statements for another. If you don't have a story, try and remember that in others...there may be more to the story than you know.

If there is any line I would like to add to the stories of the young women like me…this would be it.