On June 12th 1994 OJ Simpson stabbed to death his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman who, it seems, had turned up to return Nicole’s mother’s glasses that had been left at the restaurant he worked at.
Before anyone questions OJ’s guilt – he was found guilty in a 1997 civil trial of ‘wrongful death and battery’ against Goldman and ‘battery’ against Nicole and was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages.
He did it!
For the last few weeks on Monday nights BBC has been showing ‘The People vs. OJ Simpson’, a dramatised programme which covers the murders, court case and so on.
This week we’ve seen how the defence started to put together the approach that, ultimately, resulted in OJ being acquitted (different to being found ‘not guilty’ of course) of the charges of murder placed against him.
Part of it was the picking apart of some of the seemingly more ‘concrete’ evidence.
Creating just enough doubt in it’s validity.
But a major part of it was what many (and those in the show) would refer to as ‘playing the race card’.
Tying what had happened into the general, prevalent ‘narrative’ of racism within the LAPD, the 1992 race riots and so on.
Essentially creating a story.
A powerful story that, in part, helped a man get away with murder.
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Stories are powerful things, yet underestimated things.
We tell and hear stories pretty much all day.
Often without realising it.
We do it all the time.
Everyone does.
Very little that we say or hear is a concrete facts.
Concrete facts are hardly worth talking about.
We already know them.
The more something is ‘open to interpretation’, the more conversation is generates.
Realising which are stories and which are hard facts is the crucial first step.
Everything we tell ourselves about why we can and can’t do something is a story.
Realising that helps us question the story.
We might decide it is the right story for us and keep it.
We might decide another story helps us more.
We might change “I don’t have the energy to exercise” to “Regular exercise gives me more energy”.
“I don’t have time to exercise” might become “Exercise is an investment in helping make best use of the rest of my time”.
“Eating healthily is boring” can become “I’m going to get my enjoyment from the things that eating healthily brings – more energy, less illness, better mood, sleep and sex drive”.
“I can’t eat healthily today because ………” can be “I chose every single thing that passes my lips”.
And so on.
Remember – stories are powerful things.
Question yours and make sure you’re telling yourself the best ones you can.
Much love,
‘JC’ Hall and ‘MF’ Nichsolson
P.S. Need help questioning your stories? myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting