"The Danger of a Single Story"

I went on TED because we had watched a part of a video in my Lifespan Development just to see what else is on there. To be honest, I went on there looking for something with a religious nature, instead of going to listen to a message from someone like Louie Giglio, Dr. Art Azurdia, etc. And I can't say that I found what I was looking for, but honestly, I didn't look very far. But instead, I found this video, and I really encourage you to watch. 

If you know me, you know I like stories. I like to tell them, I like to listen to them, I like to read them, etc. Stories have a huge impact on our lives and our perceptions of things, and Chimamanda Adichie, the speaker and writer, is right when she says that we tend to focus on ONE story and it skews our whole perception. And this is a lesson we can apply to many different aspects of our lives. On one hand, it's like what she says, we, Americans, view Africa as this very poor and desolate place, full of absolute poverty and need of our assistance, and while yes, that is very true in some parts of Africa, it is not true of the whole place. There are places in Africa where normal people like you and me live. So, we can not view all of Africa as a place of dire need. And we do this with other people groups as well, not everyone is in need of saving; we have people in our own backyards that need our help too. But again, we focus on the ONE story that there is no poverty in America, and if there is some, it's only in special places that we take youth group mission trips too. And sadly, that's not the case either. But we also do this within our everyday lives as well. Think about the last argument you had with a good friend; how much you wanna bet that most of that argument was because you only saw one side of the story? I realized on my own that my parents were right when they told me that there are two sides to every story and there is a half truth in every side. There is not ONE single story anywhere for anything, with the one exception that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He came and died for the sins of the world and will come back again. But there are people that will even tell me I'm wrong about that story. We have to remember that for most things in life there are multiple stories, we can't just believe the first one we hear. (Again, it goes back to the I can make you believe what I want you to believe.) There are times when we need to look at things from both angles because both angles matter. The link to the video is below! Go watch it!!! :) 

http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html