By the time you walk into the room, the introduction is already over.
A version of you, edited, shortened, passed along, has arrived first.
And you spend the rest of the time responding to it.
Reputation: The Stories That Arrive Before You Do Read More »
There are questions that open a conversation, and then there are questions that quietly replace it. They sound reasonable. They often are. But by the time you answer them, you are no longer where you started.
Questions: The Stories We Ask Instead of Answering Read More »
You think you’re noticing a person.
The clothes, the walk, the outline of a stranger moving through an ordinary evening.
But sometimes what you’re really noticing is a pattern your body already knows.
How to move without interrupting.
How to shrink just enough.
How to stay within the edges of space without ever testing where they actually are.
And once that recognition clicks, it’s hard to tell whether you saw them at all. Or just recognised yourself at a distance.
Posture: The Stories Our Bodies Tell Read More »
We act as if saying no is harsh, so we wrap it in softer language and call that kindness. But the soft no does not remove discomfort. It simply hands it to someone else.
No: The Stories We Tell to Avoid Saying No Read More »
We grow up being told what is right. What is proper. What a good person does.
But watch closely, and the lesson is rarely in the story itself. It sits in the gap between what is said and what is done, in the way rules bend when they become inconvenient, and in who is expected to follow them anyway.
Morality sounds universal. It rarely is.
Morality: The Stories We Use to Govern Behaviour Read More »
“I’ll start tomorrow” doesn’t sound like a lie. It sounds responsible. Temporary. Reasonable. Until you notice how often tomorrow arrives and nothing changes.
Lies: The Stories We Tell Ourselves to Delay Ourselves Read More »
Something is said. It lands a little too cleanly. You feel it before you fully understand it. And then, almost immediately, it’s taken back. Just kidding.
Except nothing has actually been taken back. The words are still there. Only your ability to respond to them has changed.
Kidding, Just Kidding: The Stories We Tell Sideways Read More »
Jargon explains things on the surface. Underneath, it signals who belongs, who understands, and who gets left out. We learn the language of the room so we can stay in it. And then one day, the room changes, but the language doesn’t.
Jargon: The Stories We Tell to Belong Read More »
We don’t arrive at an identity.
We inherit one, repeat it, and slowly start believing it.
This is about the stories we live inside, and what happens when they stop fitting.
Identity: The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Who We Are Read More »
You don’t realise it the first time.
The story has already shown you everything.
It’s only when you return that the threads begin to pull, and the world reveals how carefully it was built.
Harry Potter: The Stories That Built a World Read More »
