The thing you think of as you is basically a story you are telling yourself.
Similarly, most politics is basically a struggle to tell our collective story in a way that centers our selves — these fragile things built of stories — as the heroes of our subjective universe. 1/6
Our attempts to make these two stories cohere, the self and the society, is why politics is so contentious — because it involves how we construct our own identity and everything we trust. 2/6
But there's liberation in realizing that the received stories we rehearse most frequently are myths. There is deeper truth about who you are and who we are together that does not fit easily into media narrative or political binaries. 3/6
This is still true even (especially) for "third way" politics, b/c there is no midway or 3rd way between imaginary extremes. Claiming we are somehow "above" the power struggle over narrative simply makes the narrative more real, and places our false selves again at the center. 4
I am convinced this is one reason so many of us are so existentially anxious, angry, and sad: we cannot imagine a better story.
The story you are telling yourself about who you are, and the story we are trying to tell about who we are, is fluid and subject to revision. 5/6
Faith is trusting that there is a better story that is trying to find a hearing in your life and in the world. Like improv, the story only emerges if we are willing to follow the fear and say yes to where it goes. 6/6

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More from @davebarnhart

29 Oct
OH YES. Interpret the Bible using your favorite musical gif.
Anytime the Israelites and Philistines line up for battle:
Ehud to Eglon (Judges 3):
Read 4 tweets
26 Nov 20
A #2020abecedarium:

A is for Anthony, a real stand-up guy.
He kept telling the truth but was pressured to lie.

B is for Biden, for ending this curse.
(He wasn't my first choice, but we could do a lot worse).
A #2020abecedarium:

C is for Covid, this public health spectacle,
Which has clearly revealed just *how* America’s exceptional.

D is for Democrats, still stuck in limbo
Perpetually following the Overton window.
A #2020abecedarium:

E is for Earth. We’ve only got one.
We should pass a Green New Deal, or we’re probably done.

F is for Mr. Floyd, murdered by cops.
We’ll keep protesting his death until this shit stops.
Read 14 tweets
16 Jun 20
There is a strange, nonsensical phrase about charity that we say almost exclusively in church. Whenever we talk about doing direct service, I hear this phrase: "Feeding the homeless." People say it without blinking. 1/12
If you said "clothing the hungry," or "giving the naked a drink of water," people would look at you funny. But we will say "feeding the homeless" all the time. Because addressing the primary need, the thing that defines homelessness, is almost unthinkable. 2/12
During the housing crisis, it was often pointed out that there were more houses sitting empty due to foreclosure than there were homeless persons in the United States. And still, people talked about "feeding the homeless." 3/12
Read 13 tweets

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