The Art of the Story

👉Remember last year...there was a story about a noted sociologist who visited the Inuit and discovered that they never get angry. Correction, they get angry, but they learn how to control it and never exhibit anger.

👉They've been doing this for THOUSANDS of years.

👉When bad things happened—fishing line breaking or someone accidentally pours boiling water on the floor of their igloo—they detach, assess the damage, and move to correct it.

👉Turns out, they teach their kids with stories and playfulness.  Even sometimes scary fairy tales.

👉When a kid throws a tantrum, the parent enters the story with the kid. Egging him on. Making him see the consequences of his behavior for himself.

👉A story going around the net a couple years ago about an African tribe that surrounds a member of their circle who has done something shameful and tells them for two days and in as much detail as possible all the good things the offender has done in their life. The offender goes on to promise to live up to himself.

👉Aside: The interesting thing about this second one is the violent reaction to it I saw on the net. Some people moved desperately to discredit the truth of the reality of the practice—“I’m from South Africa, and I never heard of this!”—in order to deny the possible truth in the practice.

👉I’ve been fixated on the pictures of hate in the news. On the faces of, ironically, not the victims but the perpetrators and enablers of some serious violence.

👉How frightened, ignored, discredited, obsolete must you feel that in 8 minutes and 46 seconds—long enough to tamp down any adrenaline boost or cool down your anger, long enough for a soldier with a full pack to run a mile—it never occurs to you that you are anything but a hero.

👉I’m pretty sure Derek Chauvin didn’t wake up that morning thinking he was a villain. He thought he was a defender of law and order, a white knight of Christian values. He thought he was Sir Galahad, guaranteed.

👉I’m pretty sure White Supremacists are convinced they are upholding Western Civilization—even if their definition of Western Civilization is the way we always do things.

👉When the truth is that Western Civilization, while it admittedly accomplished a helluva lot, has stalled.

👉Our story has hit writer’s block.

👉As any writer will tell you, you get writer’s block when you don’t know where the story is going. When you keep going over what you have written and anything you have the protagonist do from this point on seems contrived.

👉If the protagonist is revealed to have major flaws--and boy, does our protagonist have flaws!--and can't find redemption, you story will jump the shark, as they say in Hollywood.

👉Become absurd.

👉We need to enter our story and let the protagonists see for themselves the consequences of their behavior on their souls.

👉We need to gather these people in a circle and tell them all the good things they and their people have done, give them a gold watch, and ask for their help in crafting a new story where they do find redemption.

👉A story where they can live up to themselves.

👉Here’s one thing I know for SURE: Stories never go backward.

👉We need a new story.