Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Tuestory

Hello all :D

Ruthie sadly stole my idea.... before I had it... but I thought of it completely independent of her.

So, I was thinking about stories.
About people stories.
And how I didn't know people stories.

But first, some logistics:
Story- n. account, true or fictitious, about an event, person, etc. (In this case, we assume the lives of people)
Story turns out to be the only word I know of that is fully conjugatable in all forms in English. That is:

Mystory
Yourstory
History/Herstory
Ourstory
Y'allstory
Theirstory

(Of course, in English we made it History; not very fair if you ask me. But, often 3rd masculine singular is used as the root or "common" form in Hebrew and a few other languages, so maybe that's what happened. I dunno)

In any case, I found this very interesting. Like the TED video Ruth posted (which, again I say I came up with this independently and in slightly different verbage), I realized how single story I assign those around me, from different countries or not.
My view far too often - That cool guy at the dining hall who makes really good pizza only has one story to me: a cool guy who makes really good pizza that I eat.
Note: This is the wrong view.
Every now and then I get a glimpse of a story for someone, that is actually his/herstory.
Whether its a big event in their life, or maybe something I had just never noticed but was always there, in finding out about that particular part of that person, I get to know theirstory (I know it should be his/herstory, but I figured it would be ok to shorthand it. And so this explanation is making the time saved from that shorthand obsolete.)

I found out I really like to learn theirstories.
That's not to say that I like knowing everything about everyone; that's getting on the spectrum of creepy to stalkerish. But I was amazed at the fact that people's lives are so intricate, with the weaving of past experiences that work to make the person who they are know. Like palimpsest drawings.
This is where you ask what palimpsest is.
.....
Palimpsest is when your artwork visually is built on itself. The several tries, editions, and modifications are all present, and the process and adaption is shown. So, if you were drawing a duck, and you tried outline and shading with pencil, but that didn't really work, palimpsesting would be retrying the duck on the same paper in several mediums and ways without erasing the previous tries.
So, we're kind of palimpsest too.
We mark and are marked by what we do
and what happens to us.
Sometimes features appear more obvious, like a physical hurt that came from an accident. Others may have been lighter drawings from long past that now only shown in the expression we hold, like when we remember being a kid, and smile at the good, fun times we may have had.
In any case, the point is :
everyone
has
a
story.
I know lots of Ourstory as a family and Mystory, but its interesting to go back in my journal, and see the several drawings that make up the palimpsest of my life.
And I hope to get to know yourstory and palimpsest alot better. :D
Try to get to know the stories of those around you.
It's different when you can see their palimpsest rather than a single drawing of them.
(BTW: that pizza guy is actually really really cool)

Silly thing about me: I thought I put mayo on my sandwich, since the container and contents were white and sort of congealish, but whatever it was most certainly didn't taste like mayo. Now I'm curious....
Silly thing about someone else: Albert Einstein compared thinking less of other person's abilities to thinking fish are stupid because they cannot climb trees. (though I have not validated my sources)

Love you all. I'm not in class all day
despite rumors.
So lemme know if you wanna talk :D

5 comments:

  1. DUDE.... palimpsest.. i had to check 3 times before i spelled it right. and i very much enjoyed reading this porque tiene a really cool analogy and the use of his/herstory was quite spiffy

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  2. I liked this post richard (i see you follow my status ^^) it made me think about all the people I know. It's interesting to think about how many people one really knows. Like, immediate family members, or a few friends. Funny thing: I can think of a person and then I can visualize a pie chart haha, you can know 23% of a person, and then split that big pie chart into smaller areas like school, serious mode, church etc. and what percentage you think you know about that part of their life.

    it's late, and my comment was probably incoherent, but kudos to you richard, I really liked your post today ^^

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  3. Richard, I don't mean to be hatin', but fish are stupid. Really stupid. By that I mean they get very low IQ scores(let's not even get started on the debate of defining "intelligence"). But that's ok, because if they could climb trees, none of us would be safe.

    Haha, just kidding. I actually really liked that analogy, unsourced at the moment though it may be.

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  4. hey ricardo! saw your pic in the newspaper link your dad listed. you looked handsome, tho like a blond version of Harry Potter (not meant as an insult, really). ;) Yes, it's taken me forever to read your all's blogs, but i'm enjoying them a lot. thanks! mumsy xoxo

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