About biographies, stories and interferences with other people’s lives (English version)

Social interaction always gives us pearls, rare or strange ones. But one thing is certain: all these treasures and oddities involve stories. The world and people are driven by narratives.

The funny thing about all this process is that the human being is a constant contradiction. On the one hand, he needs to tell his stories. He needs to make sure that he leaves his mark in the world and that even after he has already turned to dust, the marks are still there, showing people who he was and what he did while he was taking his time here on Earth.

Interviews conducted in recent times and a prepared lesson about biographies gave me this certainty: people want and need to tell their stories. It is a matter of survival. It is the attempt to freeze time in important moments and produce anything that gives a stay of certainty in the world even after death.

And while people need to tell their stories, they are also afraid of their own lives and want to escape from themselves, like the way that “the devil run away from the cross.” How to survive when you run away from your story? In this maddening situation, the person starts to worry about other people’s lives. Some of the comments directed to me in recent days illustrate this point (but I’m sure you can add many others!):

“-What’s your weight”?

“- Are you eating again, you’re kind fatty, huh!” (while I was eating an afternoon snack and the person referred to I have already eaten at lunch and go back to eating at 4 pm again… Because fasting is the most natural thing in life, right?)

“- This skirt is horrible and you look like a nun!
– What if she will become a nun”? (about wearing long skirts and how they annoy others)

And my only answer to all these comments is, “So what?”

So what if my weight is 40, 50, 70, 80, 100 kg?

So what if the skirt I wear is long, short, tiny?

SO WHAT?

I just wanted people sometimes were a little less evil and stopped to reflect their insecurities and weaknesses in our lives. But they will not stop. Because the human being is a complicated beast that doesn’t come with an instruction manual. And if he is not involved with his own dramas, he is meddling in other people’s lives.

It is a pity. If he cares more about his own life, the world would be a little better.