Beyond self-protective narratives

It is tempting to simply segregate what happens to us as “good” or “evil,” “right” or “wrong” “pleasure” or “pain.”

Evil is often reserved for the actions of men. No one sees a house burning down caused by an electrical issue as “evil.” We call it an “accident” or a “tragedy.” Only until we find out that the electrician who set up did a lousy job do we say it is “evil.” Rarely do we look at the fact that an electrician hasn’t been hired in 10+ years to look at your old system to update it. In fact, too often, we craft a story that something isn’t our fault. It is the component of human behavior that changes the story we tell.

We fall into this trap, and it is me against the world. We think it must be someone else’s responsibility to fix our problems. We will even go as far as to blame God/fate/the universe to preserve the stories we tell.

The most straightforward story we can tell ourselves about causality and responsibility is that we are responsible for what happens. We have no idea what will ever work out in our favor. We constantly underestimate what time will teach us. Moral simplification will prevent us from growing from our actions. Once we recognize the complexities of life, we can now act accordingly.