Stories are ways in which people organize meaning and interpret context. This systemic approach is a counter-cultural to the Western approach to life. For most Americans and modernist, reality is a fixed ideological linear, where absolutes are objectively knowable, developed into it’s own language and preconception, and then owned. Once ownership of an idea takes hold-whether its about politics, sports, or worse:relationships-overcommitment becomes the sacred norm. Ideas become more valuable than anything or anybody else, and loss of them (changing that story) becomes unthinkable, ending in a rigid, unyielding ideology.

In The Unexpected Story, I hope to play devils advocate to those preconceptions. Reality is perceptual, subjective, and constructed. Socialization and subjective interpretations turn into overarching unconcious narratives, informing our lives. When we free ourselves from our preconceptions we become co-creators of the human experience.

Most, if not all of the conflicts between people emerge when we refuse to yield from the way we see things (our story). When people lock themselves into black and whites, right and wrongs, they miss the opportunity to create alternative stories, the unexpected stories. Here’s hoping that creating a third space that tells a story about stories, sees hope replacing the fear of loss, love as the rule, and a life examined meaningfully.

Christian