It can be frustrating- the way messy reality can turn into elegant legend so quickly. There is always the temptation to tweak events to fit into a narrative. Humans are story-telling creatures, and we see stories in human events the same way we see pictures in cracks in a ceiling.
But perhaps it’s better to go along
with the legend. The saying is, when facts conflict with the legend, print the
legend. This is usually cast as cynicism, to go with what sells, but perhaps it
actually is better to inhabit the legend. What we call “objectivity” is just
another way of interpreting events, after all – it could be that there is an
advantage in taking a legendary approach, in saying, as Jung does, that even
the most ordinary life is worthy of mythology, in casting every person as a
character in an epic. Why not?
Why shouldn’t your marriage be one
of the great loves of history? Why shouldn’t your country be a great nation, in
ways that don’t do harm to its neighbors? What’s the harm in being a legend in
your own mind?
https://allpoetry.com/When-a-Woman-Feels-Alone
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