This morning I dreamed I was back in Korea at the Symposium I just participated in. In the final closing session, I was asked to retell the Taoist story I had told at the beginning of the week about an old man, his son and their horse. For some reason, instead of my story, people wanted me to tell them a story that was slightly different in the middle, but with the same characters and the same ending. “Of course,” I thought, and began to tell the other story.
Suddenly, in the middle of the telling, I felt confused and started forgetting what came next. I no longer saw the connections that had seemed so obvious when I started. I had thought it was the same story, but in the telling, it became a different story.
Finally I realized that the “new” story they had asked me to tell was not really the same, and in trying to tell it, I had gotten completely lost. As I woke up, the thought in my head was: “stick to your own story and just tell that one.”
And that is what I intend to do!
Suddenly, in the middle of the telling, I felt confused and started forgetting what came next. I no longer saw the connections that had seemed so obvious when I started. I had thought it was the same story, but in the telling, it became a different story.
Finally I realized that the “new” story they had asked me to tell was not really the same, and in trying to tell it, I had gotten completely lost. As I woke up, the thought in my head was: “stick to your own story and just tell that one.”
And that is what I intend to do!