Ask this one about anything you've been carrying as a rule and watch how often the answer is nobody. No one decided it. It arrived, got repeated, and somewhere along the way stopped sounding like an opinion at all.
People come at this from a few directions: who decided what counts as success, why do I follow rules I never agreed to, where did this belief even come from, who told me I had to be this way. If you've been asking any of those, this is the same question wearing different clothes.
Some of what you inherited came from a person. A parent, a teacher, a boss who said one sentence you never put down. Some of it came from nobody at all, just repetition doing the work a decision would have done.
I know this because I've caught myself defending a standard I couldn't source. Somewhere I'd have to make one up on the spot, and it always sounded thinner out loud than it did in my head.
There's a difference between a rule you chose and a rule you inherited before you were old enough to choose anything. Most of the ones that run us are the second kind.
The story doesn't need to be true to be load-bearing. It only needs to have gone unquestioned long enough.
I wrote about this at more length in The Story Beneath All Stories.
If this one turned something over for you, and you feel comfortable to share, I'd like to hear what. Private, under your name, or anonymous, whichever feels right to you.
Drawn from Creative Space prompts and here for you to explore whenever you like. Members have access to the full Seed Bank; guests can access today's seed. To join me live in a Creative Space session, register on Luma.
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