Who are you?

The answer is some name and a story. Every society invents a story of themselves and their enemies. I say invent because Big Bang and Dinosaurs appear in no one, though we have enough evidence to prove that both of them happened. My best guess is that life is a virus, some core fragment of DNA which mutates giving rise to species. Sex works like a checksum to ensure that mutations can be recombined back to the core, resulting in birth. Death is main mechanism to ensure that evolutionary mistakes are not long lasting. Of course that is not the kind of story we are talking about. We are talking about the story of God and how he created men and women and what to do with neighbours etc. Something straight out of children’s story book and not a combination of philosophy, computer science and genetics. 

Let's be clear that all stories are false. They are precisely false because no one knows what the hell are we doing on this planet in the middle of no where, who created us or why.  But stories are good. Once enough people agree to a story, it becomes truth. Sometimes it takes more than a story to make it a truth. It needs monuments like temples and places of worship, things people can see around them. Sometimes it takes posters, flags and little symbols which people can keep in their homes. It also needs fashion statements, like beard or turban or cap or thread or necklace or uniform or something like that, so that you can carry your stories with you, everywhere you go. It takes festivals to remind to yourself and others of your existence and your difference and your special story. It needs loud music and songs to make it easy for people to remember the story and to force others to live with its noise. Being able to make money out of your stories cannot be understated. Money helps in giving livelihood to people whose sole job is story repetition and propagation.  The recent tools include WhatsApp messages, Facebook, ringtones, caller tunes, Display Picture, back glass of the car, door, etc. Story exists on its exposure, in minds of other people. Sometimes it takes violence, to kill others to assert your story over other stories, to teach others a lesson on not to mess with your story. The more other people need to adjust their lives to your story, the stronger your story becomes. Stories need investment and time and faith in face of difficulty. Story can only give so much power to you as much you are willing to invest in it. 

One precondition for the story is that it should include creation. Don’t worry about its stupidity. Every story demands faith and something is better than nothing. Who gives a damn about the specifics of the story? It is just means to an end. The stupider the story, the more faith it requires, the stronger it binds the people. The reality is unbelievable and uninteresting. The more you try to discover, more you get lost. The healing power of stories comes from faith not believability. It is a container, a placeholder. Here is where the buck stops. Social animal knows his own inadequacy and feels safe in the herd. We are the figment of our own imagination. We are a story, invented or borrowed or inherited. When many people share a story, it is called identity. Identity maintenance needs reinforcement, reciprocation, replication. It needs real hard work. 

Here are some ideas:

• Sun was horny and he wanted to marry the most beautiful princess in the whole world. King knew about this and kept the princess in a cellar, away from Sun. She used to come out only at night. The god of clouds was friend of Sun and he wanted to help him. One evening, he cluttered the sky with so much clouds that the king thought it is already night. When the princess came out, the clouds vanished letting the Sun take a look at her and she got pregnant by his sight. Knowing what has happened, the king threw the princess out of the kingdom. The son of the princess started a new kingdom. The rulers of that kingdom were called X. 
• The dark clouds had gathered and world was becoming a dangerous place to live. The wise men knew that something wrong was about to happen. The enemy was at the gate. They looked at the sky and heard the God say “Bring the water of seven rivers in one bucket and make the strongest bull drink it”. So they did as they were told and when the water was finished, instead of a bull they saw a warrior in its place. The great warrior defeated the enemy. The sons of that warrior are called X.
• I especially like the creation story which works through declaration. God was upset with the way the world has become and it was not going according to the plan. Then God said, let there be X and X was created from the earth and fire and God himself put breath it him. Then he told X to save the world, create a temple, give the offering and spread his message.  
• There was a King who liked to hunt elephants. One time he went to jungle with his army to hunt and found an elephant which was really huge and strong. He wanted to kill it. As the army came near, the elephant killed all his army. Then he looked at the King and was going to kill him, when the King bent down own his knees and asked for forgiveness. The elephant had mercy on the King and let him live. King requested the elephant to come and live with him in his palace. When the news of King coming to the palace with a big elephant was heard by the people, they started to worship him, thinking King has subdued the elephant. As soon as the elephant entered the palace, the King had him poisoned. It didn’t kill the elephant but made him sleep. The King tried to kill him but his skin was so strong that no weapon would cut him. Finally the King had him chained and put him in one big jail. The Kings glory started to spread as the news of his capture of a dangerous elephant. He organised a festival where people from his kingdom come and throw stones at the  elephant. The elephant undisturbed kept sleeping. One day it rained so much that the elephants jail was filled with water. He suffocated and woke up. Finding himself in chains, he easily broke them. He realised what the King has done and started killing everyone. He killed everyone in the palace, then he went to villages and then to other cities and in no time the whole kingdom was reduced to corpses. The God realising that someone is going to kill all of the mankind, appeared before the elephant. He turned the elephant into human and gave him the power of forgiveness. With the power of forgiveness elephant gave life back to everyone except the King and became the King himself. Thus started the reign of X. 

We also need a name but that is probably easier problem to deal with. Stories are the stuff that countries and religions are made of and so are people. They are just the necessary evil of social existence. Borrow one or make one, because if you don’t someone else will write your story and it may not be the one you like.