the christmas story, charlie brown christmas, dog the bounty hunter, extremely loud and incredibly close, florence and the machine

Much of what we do is based on stories. Much of what we hear and what we see are stories.

Stories tell messages. Based on particular people, set at a particular time, at a particular place. And our lives are based on these stories. They make sense of our lives and our world. We are collections, safe deposits of stories.

Our lives are based on a few stories that we tell. Some of them are good and some are not. We tell ourselves we're no good, we'll never make it. And we say this type of negative story about others. We limit other people to the stories we tell about them. These stories define our lives. What stories have you been telling?

Growing up I ran home everyday, and would be met at the kitchen table with a tunafish sandwich, celery, and some apple juice. There my babysitter would demand my absolute silence as she watch her "stories." For 2 hours the stories were told. As the World Turns. Guiding light. Days of Our lives.

Movies and television. They tell false stories. They're not true. They're soap operas, dramas. They take us to imaginary places with imaginary people.

We feel pain when we try to make real life look like the imaginary. We try to look and dress and act like imaginary people. We change our bodies to reflect those imaginary TV bodies. We get implants. Surgery. Face lifts.

These false stories are all over. On TV. In our books and in our music.

Beyonce has a song, Irreplaceable. "To the left to the left. Everything in you own in a box to the left." She's singing about this trifling man who did her wrong. He's replaceable. She can find another one like him in a minute. This song is not true. Its a story. Beyonce is married and pregnant. She's not living the lyrics of this song.