Sometimes, when we’re writing our own stories, we tend to make ourselves look smarter and bigger and better. We close our minds to the ways of the world, accepting only a exclusive story of what has happened to us.
We throw wisdom to the wind, as it were.
It’s natural for us to become absorbed in what we know and what we perceive. But in doing so, sometimes we overlook the places others have in our narrative. We often overlook the stories of others in the haste we have to preserve our own.
The side players become just footnotes, as it were.
One of my favorite Christmas movies is the 1951 film Scrooge (also called A Christmas Carol) with Alastair Sim. It’s an old black and white adaptation of Charles Dickens’ most well-known story. The crochety and parsimonious character of Scrooge refuses to see humanity around him. He cuts himself off from any human connections, clinging to riches and his miserly ways and thinking he knows best. He has written his own narrative of what the world is like.
Yet, after the spirits of Christmas have done their work, something changes. Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened from the nightmare by his charwoman, Mrs. Dilbur, who asks if he is alright. Overjoyed and overwhelmed by his change of heart, Scrooge begins to laugh and says this (well, he sings it really – I included a clip I found on TikTok):
“I don’t know anything. I never did know anything. But now I know that I don’t know. All on a Christmas morning.”
It’s okay not to know everything. It’s okay not to know anything. The problem becomes when our self-absorption keeps us from knowing we don’t know anything. There is more to this world than what we alone can perceive. We can’t fathom all of the intelligence of this world, let alone the entire story that another is writing. But alas, we also cannot live out our own stories though without knowing how those stories will also allow us to connect with the stories of others.
“One conversation, a single moment / The things that change us if we notice / When we look up, sometimes”
~ Alicia Keyes “Underdog”
So look up from time to time and notice the side players. Learn their stories as well, to the best of your ability and comprehension. Be one who looks upon the world with compassion and love instead of parsimony, ignorance, and want.
May we be given the wisdom so that we will not become blind, but rather open our eyes to the wonderment that is around us, to the stories of others that live with us. May we see that their stories are part of the magic we weave each and every day into the stories of our own lives.
Stay magical, friends.
Write those stories.
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K. S. Wood Writes 
Your words here made me think of a tapestry….so many single threads, pretty and unique by themselves, but woven together create a work of art and beauty. 💞💞💞
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What a beautiful analogy! Thank you!
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