Trapped by the narrative

I was enjoying the sports page out on the deck Saturday morning when I noticed, once again, the difference between what’s happening and the story that gets told.

The U.S. Open golf tournament was being played in difficult weather. Tiger Woods played half of Thursday's first round in a rainstorm before play was suspended for the day. He finished the round in good weather on Friday but missed some short putts that left him well behind. I was off on Friday. I saw him miss them.

The Saturday sports page reported that Tiger was behind because he had the bad luck to play in Thursday’s rain. In fact, he was behind because he missed very makeable putts in Friday's sunshine. But that didn’t fit the weather story as well.

This is not a big deal, but it reminded me how much of our lives are driven, not by realities, but by the interpretations, the narratives, the stories that get woven around them. We organize complex happenings into simpler, easier-to-tell (or sell) tales.

Those narratives give us a place to stand. They become the substance of our perspectives,
the filters of our decisions, the basis of our expectations.

Did I really choose what I did today, or was it a product of my stories?

There’s more to talk about here, but … I’ve got to go watch the U.S. Open. It’s Father’s Day and ever since my dad began taking me to play golf, it’s part of my story.