about and through without shoulding

There is a HUGE difference between writing THROUGH something and writing ABOUT something.

What happened in the sinking of the Titanic, how the ship was breached and the accident, and the result, the FACTS have always been available to me, and I remember reading about the wreck as a new reader in the 60’s. I knew ABOUT the wreck.

Then the movie came out, and I EXPERIENCED the wreck through Rose DeWitt Bukater’s eyes, even if she was a fictional composite character. The Titanic story has the facts all intact, but is written as an experience, and as an experience is compelling.

Rose’s experience living through the Titanic was subjective, in that her experience was unique. MOST of the passengers perished, and so their experience, were they be able to relate it, would have a different twist, but would STILL have the same facts.

The history of the Titanic wreck, as I knew it, was an objective historical account.

Rose DeWitt Bukater’s account was a subjective perspective of the event… it was personalized and inherent to the personalization, came humanization. I could not really comprehend the true tragedy until Rose’s humanness was woven through the facts.

How many times do I talk ABOUT something when I should be talking through it?

And when I talk through it, when I’m sharing My story, and MY perspective, how often do I make the incredible error of assuming my subjective experience is somehow THE objective view?

My story is important, because when I talk about truth, I can best relate truth by relating the truth as I have experienced it in my story, keeping in mind that others may experience something quite different.

I had some difficulty in my marriage, and the story of my life includes my marriage being completely changed, but in the process redeemed. Others have a story that ends in divorce. My story in no way reflects directly on the THEIR story, and to assume so is a disservice to both my story and theirs.

We are made in the image of God, I believe, and as we press INTO that, I think each of our stories have transcendent aspects; each have echoes of God. But there is a huge difference between transcendent echoes, and uniform conformity.

I hope to be more open to hearing the stories of others, and to assuming less about how story SHOULD be. May it be that I should on people less. May it be that I should on myself less.

I guess it's a bit rionic that I just wrote ABOUT writing THROUGH. Almost hypocritical.