My Story and Our Story

We all have our individual stories.

We each have a collective societal story.

We reward priorities and activities that affirm our societal story.

We ignore or punish those that don't.

The problem is, our individual stories often conflict with the societal ones.  The societal ones aren't easy to ignore because they are still "our" stories.  We are part of them.

We can individually feel creative and mystical and needy.  Society rewards intellect and scientific research and fierce individualism.  All too often, we live the societal story to reap the benefits and simply let our aches go ignored.

Perhaps where we need to begin is remember that all of these shoulds and needs and desires and aches...are all just stories.

Namaste.