Alternative Facts

Practice of Being Seen

“A story is true if it is well told.” We open this episode with a line from novelist Elizabeth Cunningham’s Maeve Chronicles, a series of books that reimagines Mary Magdelen as a Celtic warrior woman. It’s a brilliant truth when we’re talking about myth and fiction, but it’s terribly problematic it comes to contemporary politics. In this episode, Marisa and Rebecca discuss alternative facts, how they influence relationships, and what they have to do with storytelling.

What were the Women’s Marches about? Equality, standing against injustice, and making the holistic vision a reality: when something happens to one part, it happens to the whole.

“Can I believe you, can I trust you, do I feel safe?” These are basic questions we ask when determining whether we can feel secure in a relationship. In this episode we get into the concept of “gaslighting” and how it shows up in relationships and in women’s experiences.

Do we have different expectations about the role of truth and storytelling when it comes to our intimate relationships and the relationship between a citizen and a leader? To be storyteller is to be given great privilege and to take on great responsibility. We like to think it’s a creative, loving act, but it’s also an act of manipulation.

We need facts that we can all agree upon in order to create a nation. How do we settle on those facts? We live in interesting times and we’re mired in the messy middle. Right now, we have more questions than answers and stories are being used in a way that seems more destructive than sacred.

You can reclaim how you live into your own stories and the stories you hear. Who gets to narrate your reality? Ultimately, you narrate your own.

PS: On second listen, Marisa realized that “we hold these truths to be self evident” is actually in the Declaration of Independence, not the US Constitution.

For more on how stories shape relationships and relationships shape stories, visit Rebecca and Marisa at www.practiceofbeingseen.com.

For more on Elizabeth Cunningham’s work, please visit: www.elizabethcunninghamwrites.com