Telling stories: the fiction of our lives

Truth is I wasn't sure what to call this post as all the titles I would have loved to use had been taken, so I settled for this one as it is probably closest to what I want to write about here.

My preferred title was just 'Telling Stories' which I nicked from Tracy Chapman's remarkable song 'Telling Stories' as it accurately reflects what I want to say, you'll have to listen to that song as I won't directly be writing about it here but will incorporate its theme.

First I ask the following questions:-

1. When does fiction transcend into reality for us?
2. Do we tell tales to make our lives seem less mundane because we think it is?
3. Are we really who we think and say we are?
4. Do we fabricate our lives on a grand scale?
5. Where do we draw the line between the real and invented version of our lives and what is real?
6. Will we be less accepted if we let people know who we really are or does that mean a certain death?
7. Who are we really?
8. Why are we here?
9. Is a lie sometimes the best thing...have we been lying all our lives as a means of survival?
10. Where does the ego come to play in all of the above questions?
11. What will happen if the truth be known?
12. Will we have to lay down and die?

Right now, I am randomly interested in questions 1-7 to start with. Who are we? Will we be accepted or rejected if people know or see who we really are? If people stare and see behind the mask we show the world in different circumstances; the disguise we choose to wear for different occasions and reasons; the self that we portray wherever we go to convey a specific impression of who we want to be seen as, rather than what/who we believe we truly are.

Do we really know who we truly are?

Perhaps we have never been allowed to answer that question by ourselves...

And who do we truly believe we are as individuals? This is a billion dollar question and I'm not sure there is a straightforward answer, because simply put, we have been brainwashed from birth to assume an identity of sorts, starting with our sex and our name(s) and followed by the definitions of ' our self' that is imposed on us by our family, teachers, religion, tribe, race, friends, peers, employers, colleagues, media and government. All of these factors define us as we progress through our life's journey and try to tell us what we should or shouldn't be in order to survive.

Survival is everything! or So we believe!!

Our definition of who we are can change over time as we often assume a range of multiple personalities to present to the world in order to cope with the need for acceptance in one form or another, depending on what or whose tune or agenda we are dancing to at any given point in our lives. Unfortunately, life can seem like a series of multiple agendas and our main role can appear to be hopping from one agenda to the other in order to survive and along the way we also create our own multiple agendas.

And why do we always feel the need 'to survive' at all times? Does it boil down to the fact that man is an animal and hence our caveman instinct for self-preservation? What are we trying to preserve or protect? 
What are we running away from and where are we going?

I believe as biological beings, our need for survival stems from our overwhelming fear of death. Death accompanies us into life and follows us around like a forbidden shadow - an unseen companion, an enemy whose frightening presence we are all too aware off and which we would prefer not to acknowledge if only our lives haven't been spent trying to elude it. 

We are constantly aware of death's presence beside us, lurking darkly in the wings for its time to come because it knows (and we know) that it will prevail ultimately. But we constantly project that dark presence on to others so that we see the reflection or threat of death in them. 

Death is a frightening companion, stalking us through the eyes of people we meet, so that our instinct becomes one of not only surviving, but ultimately of preserving our lives by finding ways to eliminate the enemy before the enemy gets us. Hence lies the origin of the principle of 'warfare' in the human psyche - the need to eliminate death (others) before death eliminates us...if only for a while, as we know we must ultimately surrender. Life appears to be a gift or a borrowed item that we must preserve at all costs before it eventually gets snatched from us.

Thus right from conception, we are geared and reared to finding ways to elude death for as long as we possibly can but knowing that ultimately it will prevail and take us back to where we came from. The only certainty in life is physical death itself and we all know that and try as much as possible to prolong that certainty from happening. So we create a series of illusions, fabrications of a grand scheme which we call life, our life so far, our life as we would like it to be - to help us outmanoeuvre the certainty of death. We are constantly running through one illusion after the other, in their many different forms and guises; running away from the one thing what we know with certainty is inevitable.

So are we born primarily to run? Are we born to flee death's grasp? Is that what life is about, from conception to death, from start to end - one big game of survival, knowing that life is only for a fleeting while and during that while, we will attempt all kinds of ruses to enable us survive for one more second, for one more minute, for one more hour and for one more day...till we can no longer run, no longer hide and the inevitable happens, death catches up with us, when we can no longer fight, we surrender, hands up, white flag out, tired and weary from the battle that brought us to the end of our flight. 

What happens afterwards?