Stories are Action Potentials

What's the point of stories? Why do we tell each other such crazy stuff? For entertainment? Sure. But we're not just trying to pass the time. We tell each other stories so we can tell ourselves our own story. We learn what we might be and do, what we could be and do, what we should be and do, and how best to achieve it.

Stories are action potentials just like nerve impulses. The Action Potential is what a story actually does to your life. In 2007, I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac. In 2009, I hitchhiked across the USA. That was probably the most formative experience of my life and it was a direct result of reading Kerouac.

Action Potentials are often subtle and extremely hard to measure. I'm not sure how Ayn Rand changed my story, but I'm motherfuckin sure she did as I read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. What actions did I take after reading Forgotten Voices of WWI or Ordinary Men or, or, or... You know what I'm saying?

Just because I don't have the eyes to see or the brainpower to process the intricacies and the interconnectedness of these stories and my story doesn't mean they aren't one and the same.

I know who I am because of the stories I read, have read, and will read. The more I read, the better my story.