Hans Christian Andersen on The Shape of Life
How to Live Through your Story Rather than Be Burdened By It
Why do we tell stories? Why do we listen to them? The answer is quite simple: we want to make sense of our lives. We are all historians in this little way. The stories that we listen to subtly direct the way that we understand the trajectory of our own lives, and what we ought to expect from our own futures. But all stories are not made equal and different types of stories have different shapes, are inspired by different kinds of moral telos, and lead people in different ways.
Hans Christian Anderson’s stories have a lot to teach us about how we can tell our own stories to ourselves so that they can be lived rather than be burdens.