There are More Than Eight Billion, 45 Million Unique Stories in the World

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart

 

Not a single person in the entire world shares the exact same story with another. Humans are given free thought and free will, and no one shares another person’s mind completely. Therefore, if we listen really hard, we will find more than eight billion, 45 million unique stories around the world.

In my experience, most people have one huge fault, they are quick to judge others without knowing them. No one can truly know someone else if that person refuses to expose their innermost selves to another. Some of the most judgmental people I know call themselves “Christians.” Therefore, they must not have the right to call themselves Christians. In the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus Christ instructed his followers: “Judge not lest ye be judged,” and “Only God, the Father can judge men.”

I learned more about this lesson after the passing of my father-in-law. I knew he was a good man who I respected and liked very much. However, at his celebration of life the church was overflowing although the winds outside reached 50 miles per hour. Many of those present spoke in his praise, and there were many reasons to praise him, more than I could have imagined. He never once boasted about his accomplishments to me or anyone else I know.

This made me think about my own life and the lives of my grandparents, parents, and my brother. Everything I think I know about them is likely missing many details, details which would change my perception of who they were or who they are.

My point for writing this article is simple. I am primarily an author of fiction. I create characters who I hope will allow readers to include them in their own lives while reading my novels. Because humans have an unrestricted ability to create and recreate themselves, the possibilities are endless. This makes my writing both fun and challenging.

I have learned to be more patient, more understanding, and less judgmental about the men, women, and children I encounter in my life. It is commonplace that the reality about most humans is difficult to discern. Only they can decide how much of themselves they choose to reveal.

I believe that I am somewhat easier to understand. Writers expose themselves with their own words. However, for those of you who might not be frequent readers, this is a brief biography of yours truly.

I am a 77-year-old man born in July of 1946 in Lewiston, Idaho. My father had been discharged from the Navy in 1945 in Seattle, Washington. My mother was employed at the Boeing Aircraft plant in Seattle during the last four years of WWII.

I was raised in Los Angeles, California between the age of six until I moved to North County San Diego in 1977; married with two children, a boy aged three-and-one-half, and a newborn girl.

I moved to the Reno area in 1986 with my second wife. I began a new career in the gaming industry between 1987 and 2006. I began writing after I was laid off from an electrical warehouse when the “Great Recession” began in 2008. I write novels and have written for new newspapers and two online publications. I plan to live in the Reno for the remainder of my life with my third wife, Sandy.

That’s all you need to know about me. If you want to know my thought process, my beliefs, my principles, or my morals, read what I write. My motto has always been, “the truth lives here.” What I write is who I am.

The bottom line is you cannot know anyone well unless you live with them, and even then, everyone keeps some secrets intentionally or unintentionally. We don’t know what any celebrity is like in real life. We have no idea what any professional athlete thinks about other than their sport. Politicians are all professional liars. None of them tell the absolute truth, and therefore cannot be trusted. If we get down to the bottom line, the only member of your own family who shows you his or her true self is your dog.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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