Often, when we share stories with others, we use language that reflects our current waking realities.  It is interesting to hear Hillary Clinton relate stories of ‘being under fire from snipers’, when the actual footage from the event shows otherwise.  Her story suggests that she feels increasingly under attack and vulnerable to those critics who snipe at her potential qualities as President of the United States.

If Hillary was elected President it would be interesting to see how her stories developed.  She may begin to use more secure and confident language, or perhaps she feels innately insecure and under constant threat.

As Newsweek reports, for many years Clinton has been telling the story of her visit to Tuzla in Bosnia in 1996, gradually adding embellishment and changing details.  This is a natural and widespread process as stories of our specific experiences evolve into declarations of archetypal awareness.   It often begins within 24 hours of the actual event as we seek to share our impressions with others. 

Ronald Reagan often related that he had been in Normandy in 1944 and was present at the liberation of the Nazi death camps. He reportedly later told an associate ‘Maybe I had seen too many war movies, the heroics of which I sometimes confused with real life‘.

As editor of The Shinbone Star,  Dutton Peabody declared in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance ‘This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend‘. 

As a coincidental and almost homophonic footnote, Gene Pitney, who had a Top Ten hit with the title track from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is best known for his signature song, Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa.