The ones you take to heart

 While wondering about the influences that shape us, a line of Peter Orner’s came up: 

Stories, both my own and those I’ve taken to heart, make up whatever it is that I’ve become.

 

That’s it, isn’t it? The stories we take into our heart are like the stray dogs we take into the kitchen, allegedly just for one night. The world is full of stories, just as it’s full of stray dogs. But the ones you take to heart get you. Once inside, they don’t leave.

• Sources: Peter Orner, Am I Alone Here? Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live; New York: Catapult, 2016.