How does one acquire a story? The culture in which one is born already has an image of time, of the self, of heroism, of ambition, of fulfillment. It burns its heroes and archetypes deeply into one’s psyche. The tendencies and fears of one’s parents, the figures one hears described in church, the living force of teachers and uncles and grandparents and neighbors, the example of companions along the way, the tales read in books or visualized in legend, cinema, the arts: all such influences impress one’s imagination with possible courses of action, possible styles of life.652
