The Word for the Week is Narrative

There are things I read and podcasts and lectures that I listen to concerning various subjects that often become a part of any chaplaincy or pastoral conversation I have. This week the word that is continually fitting into my conversations is “narrative”. Specifically I have been talking about the stories that we tell ourselves and others of the events we experience and live through. Those stories determined so much of how we interpret what happens around and to us.

Are we a victim or a survivor? Am I a hero or a villain? How I perceive myself effects how I interpret my experience.

I’ll probably write more about this after I have thought about it for awhile. Basically we are very much the product of the stories we tell about ourselves and the events we are a part of.

One of the reasons for this is a segment from the wonderful podcast To the Best of Our Knowledge. The segment is “The Positive Side of Pain“.

SIDE NOTE – An unrelated and equally awesome podcast is Hidden Brain.  I listened to their episode concerning poverty and “mental bandwidth” this week and it was wonderful. Here it is – “Tunnel Vision“.

SIDE NOTE – I regularly see wild turkeys in our neighborhood while walking Clive but today there were three toms blown up and strutting in the road. Unfortunately you can barely see them in this video. You can see the turkeys, just not when they were strutting.  The annoying mic noise comes from the fact that I had my earphones in and the earphone mic was rubbing against my jacket.

2 Replies to “The Word for the Week is Narrative”

  1. In order to “reframe” negative self-narratives it is helpful to have a trained chaplain who understands the art of deep listening. These quiet counselors are willing to listen-through the crisis moment and realign the judgements we’ve accepted about the event. Someone like, Robert Terrell!

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