The Stories We've Come to Believe About Ourselves

Thomas Harris and the old "Transactional Analysis" school of psychotherapy used to talk about the "tapes" we play in our heads, reminders of both positive and negative things we think we have learned about ourselves. The "TA" folks talked about the voices of parents and teachers and mentors and ancient friends and enemies that continually insinuate themselves into our own self understanding. Theologians and scholars focused on religion (no, they are not always the same thing -- more on that another time.) don't talk about "tapes;" they talk about "myth." In this context, "myth" does not refer to something "fictional." Theologian and author Thomas Moore explains:

..."myth" doesn't mean falsehood; it refers to the the narrative that gives us an imagination of self and life, allowing us to live meaningfully and purposefully. A life-defining myth is not usually conscious to the people who are living it...We just assume our myth is mere fact, and our explanations for things the simple truth. We don't usually reflect deeply enough to understand that the world we see all around us is highly filtered by the myth in which we believe. (Thomas Moore, "Religion," in Imagine: What America Could Be in the 21st Century, Marianne Williamson, editor, p. 299)

We have cultural, national, and personal "myths," "stories we have come to believe about ourselves." Regarding your personal journey, what is "the story you have come to believe about yourself?" Not only the "biographical data" details about where you were born, where you grew up, what you did/do for a living, who you married, who you divorced, the number and names of your kids and grandkids, but also the "screenplay" that plays in your head as you watch yourself living your life. What are those core principles around which you almost unconsciously organize your life? Not only the "noble" stuff, but the secret, not-so-pretty, uncomfortable stuff that you'd just as soon not fess up to. Who are the people who have shaped you into the person you are? Not only the loved ones and mentors and teachers and models, but the ones who have betrayed, hurt, disappointed and abandoned you. How do those principles, those people, along with your "biography," continue to act as "filters" through which you view and understand the world?