A Singular Story

Last week we watched a very inspiring and insightful video featuring a writer from Nigeria named Chimamande Adiche who presented a personal narrative essay on the dangers of a singular story. Not only did she keep my attention for the entire 15-20 minutes she spoke, I giggled, thought a little bit harder, questioned, and even at the conclusion of the video I thought to myself I need to watch this again. Today as I write this one of my friends tell me an old proverb that links directly to what she said, "never let a lion tell the history of a giraffe". Our singular stories limit us until we get the entire view, for a singular portion of the truth makes it false. I believe what she touched on was more then amazing, from the back story and how she brought in personal experiences that made the audience feel like they were right there with her in childhood days. She allows the audience to take a gander into the faults and success of her life, but without one or the other each side of the story is only a singular side. You can't have failure without accomplishment.