Looking at the World Through a Different Prism

Fine actor Colin Firth once said, "When I'm really into a novel, I'm seeing the world differently during that time-not just for the hour or so in the day when I get to read. I'm actually walking around in a bit of a haze, spellbound by the book and looking through everything through a different prism." I think this really captures the way I feel about all stories. They tune the way I see the world. I think of things in a new perspective through each in every story I read or watch in a movie or on television. That's why I can't stop taking in stories. The world would be so dull otherwise.

I know I'm biased as a Reading teacher, but I honestly think stories are the most critical way we can improve society and ourselves as people. Reading about characters from different backgrounds and with different experiences builds empathy and understanding. Sometimes, stories just help us understand the facts about our present and past world. Before watching 13 Hours, the word "Benghazi" was just a political term thrown about and I didn't understand what happened and the people involved. Before I watched The Imitation Game, I was completely unaware of who Alan Tuning, a world hero, was. Watching The King's Speech acquainted me with a king I didn't know and Jackie brought a picture from history to life and made me think about who Jackie Kennedy might have really been as a first lady and a person.

Even when works are complete fiction, I feel as if the prescription of my glasses changes a bit. I ask myself more "what if" questions that most people. (Hopefully, Stephen King is right when he says all the best authors ask themselves "what if" questions every day until a story forms and I'll eventually write something meaningful.)What if I'm not seeing the entire world like in The Giver or Harry Potter or City of Bones? I continue to look for the unexplored. What if I didn't have the ability to choose my path in life like in The Lobster or Matched or Divergent? I continue to pay attention to my freedoms and my restrictions in order to fight for the best world I can live in.

I've read books about people with deformities and cancer and different sexual preferences and depression. I've read about the loss of family and friends. The loss of talents and bodily functions. I've read about adventures at sea an vacations across the U.S. and finding love in all kinds of circumstances. Some people say stories let you live many lives, but I don't agree. I did not live those lives. I can't possibly know how I'd really react in those situations. But I did hear their stories. And hearing others' stories is an incredibly powerful thing. Talk to someone from another walk of life, watch a new movie, read a new book. I promise, it will change everything.