%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |
Are we all storytellers even if we don't write? |
|
We create a narrative for our lives. Some stories are good, others not so. Self-talk or inner speech is an inner narrative which gives a voice to our thoughts while we are awake. Dramatists use a monologue or soliloquy to tell the audience what a character is thinking. They sometimes use it to share information with the audience. But what of the stories we tell ourselves? Why do we do it and can they affect us? For most of us, the answer is yes, and our story can impact everything we do. Tell ourselves a bad story and our life can be hell. Introspection is the examination of our own conscious thoughts. It also involves a look at our soul in a spiritual context. For thousands of years, people talked about the inner voice. Plato once questioned, “...why should we not calmly and patiently review our own thoughts”. Self-reflection is an image we have of ourselves and is hard to change. It comes from things learned about who we are. Research has shown human brains can only experience one thought at a time as a fast-flowing stream. Buddhist scriptures describe it as the 'Mind Stream'. Practising mindfulness is being aware of the moment-to-moment events in our lives and how we react. Buddhist teachings say the mental and material events created by the senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, touch, and thoughts are related to the past, present, and future. In literature, the technique of narrating the flow of thoughts and feelings in the minds of characters is called stream of consciousness. Stream of consciousness is a literary device which gives the writer the ability to tell an audience or reader what a character is thinking. It can be a loose selection of thoughts in connection with how the person feels or reacts to something. Authors, however, did not invent stream of consciousness but the term was coined by eminent psychologist William James. Susan Blackmore, visiting professor, University of Plymouth describes it this way, “When I say that consciousness is an illusion I do not mean that consciousness does not exist. I mean that consciousness is not what it appears to be. If it seems to be a continuous stream of rich and detailed experiences, happening one after the other to a conscious person, this is the illusion.” We know a negative self-talking story is associated with psychological disorders such as low moods affecting how we behave, and our sense of well-being. It can also lead to a sense of dread and turmoil resulting in loss of sleep. In the next blog, I look at ways to tell ourselves a better story. |
| Hollywood star Matt Damon recalls a notice attached to the copy of a screenplay he received. Written by Scott Z. Burns, the note read, “Read this then go wash your hands.” That instruction to ‘wash your hands’ from ten years before the current crisis, foretold a plight that later grew into a crucial truth in 2020. Burns’ manuscript was for a movie called Contagion, directed by Steven Soderbergh and released in 2011. The film contains many uncanny similarities to the COVID-19 pandemic inflicting suffering on a global scale almost a decade later. To put the script in perspective, Burns researched many pandemics before starting the script. The 2009 flu pandemic was “really helpful” he said. At the time, the scriptwriter examined issues not solely relating to the virus, but how society handled the situation. The 2020 pandemic is very much about society and the disruption caused by lock-downs and the imposition on individual freedom. When the world was first alerted to a novel coronavirus in December 2019 after a fish vendor became ill in a market place in Wuhan, China, comparisons found in fiction spread via social media. A 1981 novel by Dean Koontz titled The Eyes of Darkness referred to a deadly virus named “Wuhan 400”. History reveals a long and varied tradition of telling stories about torment and carnage. During the 8th century BC, the Greek gods did not take kindly to Agamemnon's disrespect of Apollo. According to Homer's epic poem the Iliad, the gods fired arrows tipped with diseases to afflict the Greek army. When Chryseis, who was held captive by Agamemnon, is returned to her father, Apollo ends the scourge. Along similar lines of suffering The White Plague published in 1982, Frank Herbert writes of a scientist bent on revenge creating a pathogen that kills human females. By the time a vaccine is found, Earth’s genetic balances had shifted to leave a few women with thousands of suitors to choose from. Not to be outdone in dominating the genetics pool, The Female Man penned in 1975 by Joanna Russ wiped all the male species, leaving a feminine utopia. Fortunately for humanity, none of these stories eventuated, yet. There are, however, a few novels whereby elements in the story are strikingly similar to what transpired throughout subsequent history. Buzz Windrip is a character in It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. Windrip defeats FDR in 1936. His campaigns rallied around America’s white working class, and he spearheaded the cause of the ‘Forgotten Men’. An article in the New York Times outlined similarities between Windrip and Donald Trump. Tom Clancy in his 1994 novel, Debt of Honor, tells of a hijacked 747 crashing into the Capitol Building. In his 1968 novel, John Brunner foresaw things thought impossible back in the sixties: the decline in tobacco use, decriminalization of marijuana, global terrorism, and the advent of gay marriage. Few would have imagined facial recognition and public areas under the scrutiny of cameras in 1949. Neither would they believe personal details would be collected by mega-corporations such as Google. When George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four he imagined totalitarian governments using mass surveillance to control the population. This argument that humans can not invent or imagine something they have not seen is curious. Einstein imagined the theory of general relativity whereby a large object could bend time. It took some 100 hundred years for astronomers to discover the fabric of space-time to be ripped around much more than expected and proves Einstein correct. When it comes to creating something not seen before, Douglas Adams in his Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency credits the renowned inventor, Sir Isaac Newton, for inventing the cat flap. “A device of the utmost cunning, perspicuity, and invention. It is a door within a door, you see.” The line, “Blogging is not writing, it’s graffiti with punctuation,” is from the film Contagion. It was said to online commentator Alan Krumwiede when he asked for information about the virus. No one took him seriously. If we took stories about time-travel or mankind inhabiting planets other than the Earth as proof the stuff of imagination can or will become reality, then books and blogs should be taken seriously. |
| Living in this time of COVID-19 or the novel corona virus witnesses a few challenges not seen before--at least not in my lifetime. I've read stories about a time when coupons were issued for petrol or gasoline. Coupons were also issued for sugar and other commodities in short supply. American civilians got their first “Sugar Book” in May 1942. Coffee was rationed in that same year to 0.45kg to individuals ever five weeks. By November 1943 even firewood was rationed. In the UK, rationing was more severe than during the war years. The limit on sugar and eggs did not end until 1954. Black and white images from that time show people in queues waiting patiently for their supplies In 2020 television viewers witnessed three women in a supermarket aisle fighting over packets of toilet rolls. The modern consumer experienced decades of abundant goods with readily available funds to purchase. Most people in the developed world have not lived through hardship. How will the modern person cope with rationing? Foreseeably, emissions credits will be allocated to all adults where those who emit below their quota can sell their surplus credits. Most people accept this as a consequence of modern living. But what if the COVID-19 gains further traction the supply chain? How would the CEO’s of supermarket chains cope? OCR scans on phones (in place of stamps), could limit a commodity the consumer buys at any one time, such as toilet paper. Present day shoppers not allowed to buy what and when they want? Quelle horreur! |
| Iran has become the latest epicentre for coronavirus in part because of the Fatima Masumeh Shrine which draws pilgrims from around the world. But what about Australia? Do we have similar, drawing tens of thousands to touch an icon, albeit non-religious? Poker machines or slot machines are found in all states of Australia. For example, NSW (New South Wales) alone has 100,500 machines in clubs, pubs, and casinos. The buttons on each machine are touched by scores of people throughout the day. It would be a safe bet that players, intent on winning, do not wash their hands before and after touching the machine. Touching parts of the face after coming in contact with an infected person is a sure-fire way to catch the virus. Australia has more poker machines per person than any other country on Earth. It would be fair to say they are an Aussie icon. If this corona scourge ever makes its way into the gaming rooms from tourists having a little flutter, players could find bigger odds than just losing a few dollars. |
| Here in Australia, when large tracts of the country started to burn, politicians acted quickly by booking Christmas holidays before queues got big at the airports. One politician looked to the skies and declared the disaster was from a higher authority, and there is nothing we can do about it. The current fires could be interpreted as God’s message much the same way he impressed Moses with a burning bush. The Almighty, “Like, um, you better do something. And don’t even think to question the Lord.” Mark Eggleton reporting in the Financial Review quotes the chief executive officer of the Clean Energy Council Kane Thornton as saying, “The technology’s proven, and we are seeing this around the world, so very clearly we can transition (from fossil fuel) much faster now than people had anticipated.” This fire crisis in a country with no national energy policy makes Australians look indecisive, not to mention a mob of half-baked cow-pat kickers. As the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison rummages through the eggplant and lentils in the parliament house kitchen, hoping to find a pork sausage to beef-up his flexitarian diet, he might think of renewable technology… It changes as quickly as voters change their minds. |
| By the 1990s, computer models predicted an increase in global temperature of around 2C. Everyone thought, be serious! Two degrees ain’t so bad, it’s nothing! What the computer models didn’t tell scientists because programmer Maybell Rutledge from Jackson Hole Wyoming forgot to put a comma between a mindboggling big set of numbers was—a warmer climate means hotter summers, less rain, and countrysides bursting in firestorms. The world witnessed how devastating wildfires can be for humans and animals. The computers also forgot to mention that farm animals will die, and menus will feature big slabs of tofu topped pizzas. If you ever thought a vegetarian lifestyle is not for you, think again. |
| Meat Lover’s pizzas will disappear from menus as quickly as the Tasmanian Tiger vanished from a concrete zoo in 1936. A child of the future may ask the fated question at a dinner table, “What was a meat lover?” To which the vegetarian parents will scramble to Google or ask Siri to find a photo of a grease-stained menu. Thomas Edison, who invented electricity, was one of the first to raise concern that generating electricity to power the light bulb could, to say the least, be a bit tricky. Perhaps he guessed back in 1930 that his invention would see hundreds of household devices needing electrical power from coal-fired power stations. These power stations pump CO2 into the biosphere, which in turn heats the atmosphere. Billions of households sweating it out cool down by turning on the air conditioner. More and more coal is burned to power the air-cons, but the Earth is heating up. The flustered masses drop the thermostat to notch up the cold…and you get the picture. |
| Gundi Rhoades is a veterinarian caring for livestock in northern NSW for the last 22 years. In an article published in the Brisbane Times, she writes of the devastation she sees daily caused by a changing climate. “Cattle that sold for thousands (of dollars) are now in sale yards a $70 per head,” she said. Magnificent bloodline stock going for a song? It made me think what a fantastic marketing opportunity for a fast-food franchise: Not just a beef patty, but a pedigree burger. The vet’s point is that bulls, or more specifically their unmentionables, are overheating in 40C/100F temperatures in what usually has been a temperate zone. A bull with hot private parts can’t do what a bull has to do, which means cattle herds are going the way of the dinosaur. Rhoades went on to say about the prolonged hot and dry conditions in that part of Australia, “Piglets and calves are aborting.” The vet’s point is that the food chain, especially the animal protein part, is deserting us and meat could become extinct from our dinner plates. The finger of blame cannot be levelled solely at the rise of Indian vegetarian restaurants. A thing more sinister is at hand. |
| A thick slab of beef browning in a skillet of oil could make way for braised quinoa or a tempeh confit. But don’t expect meat lovers to chain themselves to bridge pylons in protest. The conversion to a country of beany-boilers will arrive slowly, just as a warming climate crept unawares. Gone will be the days when shoppers shook hands with beef, but join the queues of grass-holes and tree-huggers in the Republic of Vegantopia—formerly known as Australia. ...to be continued. |
| Punishment for crimes. In the early centuries, those who committed a crime against the community were regarded as offending the gods. The gods would vent their displeasure in the form of floods or famine. The Bible says, lex talionis or ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’. It means punishment for the crime should not spiral to personal revenge resulting in blood feuds but no greater than what befits the wrongdoing. Various societies sought ways to penalize criminals. Some, by today’s standards, seem bizarre and unjust. The next blog will feature a few curious examples. |
| The stories we tell ourselves develop from things that happen in the day-to-day from childhood to the job we had last week. The time when the teacher yelled at us for crayon scribbles on the wall, even though we didn't do it, set-up 'automatic thoughts' which get repeated over and over as a view of ourself and the world around us. A bad story can also come from wanting to do something perfectly. All of us have a choice in how we live and the story we tell. It is entirely possible to kick back and do nothing, live a happy life of unchallenged bliss? Probably not. A tiny voice would rehash saying such as life is not a rehearsal, or time waits for no man to remind us of our story of doing little or nothing is no story at all. Most of us want to do something, take a challenge, leave statements of the minutes, hours and days of our existence. Attempting to do something—such as write a blog—opens up the possibility of failing. Failure is inevitable. It is how we tell the story of what happened in those dismal times of defeat that makes the difference. We can distort a bad story after a failure into something like, I'm the dumbest that ever lived. Such a story is not true and a method of arguments called elenchi would cross-examine the facts to disprove the bad story. We've all read stories of epic failures by famous people. Stephen King was working as a school teacher when he wrote Carrie. After getting his novel rejected 30 times he did what Homer Simpson advised, 'If at first you don't succeed, give up before you fail again.' King tossed the manuscript into the trash. His wife convinced him to submit it one last time. Thomas Edison said, 'Many of life's failures are people who did not know how close they were to success when they gave up.' That could have been Stephen King's story. Edison who endured many failures turned the story he told himself around. He said, 'I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work.' His life story had the hallmarks of being a bad one. While at school, his teachers assessed him as pretty dumb and would not likely succeed in life. Back in an era called the 'swinging sixties' people became fascinated with the capabilities of the mind. Some took drugs called hallucinogens to cause them to see, hear, and feel things that weren't there—experiences only in their head. It opened questions about reality and how we deal with it. At the same time psychiatrist, Aaron T. Beck started to believe thoughts, feelings, and behaviour are all associated. He came up with the idea that if we want to do something and overcome obstacles along the way, we have to change our thinking. It set the basis for what we now know as Cognitive Therapy. Here's the thing: many of us don't recognise we have bad thoughts or stories. There are four basics steps in what we call Cognitive Restructuring: the first is knowing we have bad stories that are negative about us and the world around us. The second is understanding these thoughts are distorted and we must do something about it. The third is cross-examining the story to disprove it. While the fourth is coming up with a good argument that these automatic thoughts are bad. If we want to be better, tell ourselves a better story. |
 Log in to Leave Feedback |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
