( gwenaëlle. nevermind that, bethany isn't even here any more—not that she's paid enough heed to know it. moving on: )
That's what I'm saying, they're the same thing. Sometimes. Not all the time, obviously, people do actually lie and are fucking awful, but—look, when we're dead, that's all that's left. When you die, what people remember isn't...real, it isn't exact, it isn't...who you were. It's the story you told of yourself. Or it's the story that they told themselves about you. And we all do it, even if that isn't what we call it. Unless you're going up to every single person that you meet and explaining every single facet of yourself as a person to them, you're choosing what you show people.
And it matters. It does matter. Understanding that matters, because how people see things matters. It's so easy to undo the good someone does by having a better story. You can make people hurt themselves believing they don't have a choice, because something else is worse, something else you keep them too afraid to see past, and then they can't organise themselves, because there's no point. You can't counteract that without understanding it.
( it's at this point that gwenaëlle realises she's got slightly carried away, and clears her throat. )
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2018-11-23 07:59 am (UTC)( gwenaëlle. nevermind that, bethany isn't even here any more—not that she's paid enough heed to know it. moving on: )
That's what I'm saying, they're the same thing. Sometimes. Not all the time, obviously, people do actually lie and are fucking awful, but—look, when we're dead, that's all that's left. When you die, what people remember isn't...real, it isn't exact, it isn't...who you were. It's the story you told of yourself. Or it's the story that they told themselves about you. And we all do it, even if that isn't what we call it. Unless you're going up to every single person that you meet and explaining every single facet of yourself as a person to them, you're choosing what you show people.
And it matters. It does matter. Understanding that matters, because how people see things matters. It's so easy to undo the good someone does by having a better story. You can make people hurt themselves believing they don't have a choice, because something else is worse, something else you keep them too afraid to see past, and then they can't organise themselves, because there's no point. You can't counteract that without understanding it.
( it's at this point that gwenaëlle realises she's got slightly carried away, and clears her throat. )
That's just what I think. Anyway. Whatever.