You are neither a princess nor a prince, but you wish you were. You wonder how it might be if you were a formidable athlete, a popular actor or actress, a rich landlord, a notable tycoon, a forgiving child, a content individual. Your life and those of others are many times the same and different, but each one’s true experience is hers and his alone, not yours; still, you wonder how life manages itself if you were who you could become. A humble, temporary, yet an effective solution to experiencing someone else’s world is to get hold of, and cozy up to a narrative fictional text. Let characters in a novel or a short story challenge you and transform you into as many individuals with whom you want to empathize or to vicariously live. You could enter into a bullied boy’s world and suffer loudly or silently with him. You could journey with a homeless person and undergo her deprivations or his humble joys. You could take a despot’s place and enter his maniac-like and psychotic predispositions. You could rule a country and its people, and dare make decisions bad and good. You could covet, and then take by force someone else’s spouse and watch your life crumble. You could ruin lives or make them meaningful. You could put justice to effect. You could do anything, be anyone, aspire to do great things and act responsibly. Immersing ‘you’ into someone’s narrative experience lets you enter undiscovered worlds; it changes your perspective of others you may have judged harshly or it may affirm your humanity’s beliefs and goodness.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
EncounterLives
9 …
You are neither a princess nor a prince, but you wish you were. You wonder how it might be if you were a formidable athlete, a popular actor or actress, a rich landlord, a notable tycoon, a forgiving child, a content individual. Your life and those of others are many times the same and different, but each one’s true experience is hers and his alone, not yours; still, you wonder how life manages itself if you were who you could become. A humble, temporary, yet an effective solution to experiencing someone else’s world is to get hold of, and cozy up to a narrative fictional text. Let characters in a novel or a short story challenge you and transform you into as many individuals with whom you want to empathize or to vicariously live. You could enter into a bullied boy’s world and suffer loudly or silently with him. You could journey with a homeless person and undergo her deprivations or his humble joys. You could take a despot’s place and enter his maniac-like and psychotic predispositions. You could rule a country and its people, and dare make decisions bad and good. You could covet, and then take by force someone else’s spouse and watch your life crumble. You could ruin lives or make them meaningful. You could put justice to effect. You could do anything, be anyone, aspire to do great things and act responsibly. Immersing ‘you’ into someone’s narrative experience lets you enter undiscovered worlds; it changes your perspective of others you may have judged harshly or it may affirm your humanity’s beliefs and goodness.
You are neither a princess nor a prince, but you wish you were. You wonder how it might be if you were a formidable athlete, a popular actor or actress, a rich landlord, a notable tycoon, a forgiving child, a content individual. Your life and those of others are many times the same and different, but each one’s true experience is hers and his alone, not yours; still, you wonder how life manages itself if you were who you could become. A humble, temporary, yet an effective solution to experiencing someone else’s world is to get hold of, and cozy up to a narrative fictional text. Let characters in a novel or a short story challenge you and transform you into as many individuals with whom you want to empathize or to vicariously live. You could enter into a bullied boy’s world and suffer loudly or silently with him. You could journey with a homeless person and undergo her deprivations or his humble joys. You could take a despot’s place and enter his maniac-like and psychotic predispositions. You could rule a country and its people, and dare make decisions bad and good. You could covet, and then take by force someone else’s spouse and watch your life crumble. You could ruin lives or make them meaningful. You could put justice to effect. You could do anything, be anyone, aspire to do great things and act responsibly. Immersing ‘you’ into someone’s narrative experience lets you enter undiscovered worlds; it changes your perspective of others you may have judged harshly or it may affirm your humanity’s beliefs and goodness.
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