The Danger of a Single Story - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

There’s so much in this world to take in: so much fascinating information, so many interesting people, but I’m often a toe-dipper in life, so sometimes (I am embarrassed to say) I stop before I have a full picture. Or not even full (because, how can you ever really get there with so much in one lifetime)—just half full. Not enough to truly know. Shallow.

Doctors are taught to never change their practice based on the last patient or the last study. It’s good advice.

In my case it’s kind of strange, because I am curious to see and try so many things, but after a day of welding class, I would never have said I was a welder. So why do I read one story or listen to one podcast and feel like that story has successfully given me all the nuances and sides there are to know about a person, an issue, a country, before I give an opinion about it? Or, really, just repeat it. Repeat what I’ve been told.

I need to do better.

I’m sure many of us would agree finding good in “evil” people, or flaws in those we highly esteem, are intriguing little tidbits. They surprise us and take us in directions we did not expect. They challenge us. But you can’t get there without getting behind that “evil” or “highly esteemed” veneer. You need to find out more. Until I do that, I’m cheating myself and everyone else.

 "The danger of a single story is that it creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story."

-        Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning Nigerian writer, from her TED Talk about The Single Story