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We’ve seen how a new idea – in this instance reframing the act of washing up dishes - can allow access to different ways of thinking, and can open the page on a new story.
We are all caught within our own webs of meaning, the heroes or victims of the stories that we tell ourselves. If we see the mind as a metropolis, then our city limits are the extent of the tales we currently tell and the meanings that we value. If our vocabulary is limited then we may reside within a town; a constant repetition of familiar places and people – and, indeed, this may be a comfort. For others, the city may stretch for miles, with districts dangerous and unknown. And always we may wonder: what galaxies of meaning lie outside of our own?
The advantage of a new idea is that it allows us access to new areas, and in so doing enables us to enlarge our internal landscape. New ideas can also, as in the story of the dishes, allow us to reframe old ones, giving a different vantage point on a familiar area.
If we believe, as psychologist James Hillman suggests, that we are the “creation of the stories we tell ourselves”10 then it may be worth, every once in a while, reading them through.
Who are we playing?Have we outgrown this story?
Does it still speak to us?
How did it start?
And how, more importantly, might it end?
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