Do you ever have an idea you want to write about floating around in your head that is so big, so interconnected with other ideas that you don’t know where to start? I have one of those rattling around in my brain going on two months now.
My notes file grows. Each note is like a jigsaw puzzle piece except I don’t have the box and have no idea what the picture is supposed to be or even how many pieces there are. Every time I pick up a piece and think, Oh I will begin with this one, I see another piece sort of like it but just different enough for me to stop and think, Well maybe I should begin with this one instead? Trouble is, it keeps going on like that; picking up the pieces and putting them back down.
When I do puzzles I like to find all the corner and edge pieces and build the frame, or most of it, before filling in the middle. I am searching for the edges and finally realized there aren’t any. But I keep looking, you know, just in case. And because I keep looking, I am not working on putting the pieces together.
Let’s leap to a different metaphor. I have been collecting the tinder for a very long time and it wasn’t until I finished Richard Powers’s novel, The Overstory, a couple months ago that a spark hit the tinder and began to smoke. Here is a bit of the spark:
The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.
There is nothing particularly special about the quote. It is an idea I have come across before. This time though the spark that flew finally caught.
Stories are the way we make sense of ourselves, the world, and our place in the world. I have been creating a new story of myself for a while now, though I have not thought of it as a story. Nonetheless, I have been searching for stories like mine out there in the world. At first there weren’t many, but their numbers are increasing. Or rather, the stories have always been there but I didn’t know where to find them and now I do. This past year I feel like I have made it through the dense, dark woods and am now standing on the shore of a deep, clear lake swimming with stories and I don’t know where to begin.
Do I dive in or take my time, dipping in a toe and then wading to my ankles, knees, thighs until I am immersed?
You know, I think I have actually been on the shore of this lake for a while, walking around and sticking in a toe here, waggling my fingers there, squinting against the glare on the water and trying to see what is below the surface without having to fully commit. It’s time to stop messing around with edges and get on with this story; start putting the pieces together, dive in and flail around, sink, swim, float, see what happens and where it all leads. An adventure.
If you are reading this and wondering, What the fork is she talking about?—all I can say is, I don’t know exactly what I am talking about either. What I do know is that the current stories we are living by, stories about what and who we are as humans, stories about America, the World, The West, Capitalism, Democracy, Science, Nature, and all the things we think we are owed and entitled to, these stories are broken. They are failing us and the planet. We are in the midst of a slow motion catastrophe the likes of which we have never seen or experienced before. We can die holding onto the broken stories or we can start creating new ones.
WE can make these stories. Don’t wait for someone else to tell you what the story should or could be. What do YOU want the story to be? As the old stories collapse around us, here’s our chance to create something new and good. Here is our chance to step up and contribute to new stories that build something beautiful amidst the ruins.
It is not going to be easy, real adventures never are. A lot of it will probably suck. But not all of it. There will be mistakes and wrong turns, backtracking, confusion, getting stuck and plain lost. But there will also be moments of grace and peace, joy, celebrations, new friends and community, purpose, and satisfaction. A good many of us might not live to see the end of the story, might not make it there and back again. There might not be anything to make it back to, but you know what I mean. We all have a part to play, a piece of the story to tell, and we can choose our part—hero, villain, coward, leader, it’s a long list.
‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’ (J.R.R. Tolkein, Fellowship of the Ring)
With a New Year on the horizon, what better time to start a new adventure story?
Recognizing that we can choose the story we live from can be liberating; finding a good story to take part in adds to our sense of purpose and aliveness. (Joanna Macy, Active Hope)
Think of it as a “choose your own adventure” story. Ready or not, here we go.
I think you should just jump in the lake. Might take yr breathe away at first, but just keep swimming. (Too much metaphor?…) 😜
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LOL Liz, can there ever really be too much metaphor? 😀
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Whatever you are thinking of, do it! Your enthusiasm is contagious.
And oh my goodness, your post reminds me so much of the daughter’s character in Kingsolver’s Unsheltered. You could be kindred spirits.
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Thanks Laila! Thinking about a lot of things, but at the moment really thinking about starting a transition group in my neighborhood instead of glomming onto the the transition group several miles and neighborhoods away like I have been doing. It is so far outside my comfort zone that I really have to work myself up to take the leap! I have been in the holds queue for Unsheltered since I read your review. I am currently #919 but there are 119 copies of the book so maybe my turn will come up by March or April? Looking forward to it 🙂
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Great post. I agree that one must advance the story. I look at it as more of an ongoing adventure. Or sometimes it is just an interval between books in a series. I am glad that you mentioned how a lot of it will probably be lousy. The good does indeed come with the bad.
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Thanks Brian Joseph! Heh, I think you and I both have read enough hero journey books and series that we know it is seldom glorious and the sunshine and rainbows are few and far between. It makes the good moments that much sweeter.
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I love this post! ‘Here is our chance to step up and contribute to new stories that build something beautiful amidst the ruins.’ sums up everything! 🙂
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Thank you Parikhit!
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Beautifully written Stefanie – though, knowing you from your blog over some years now, I started to guess what it was all about before you revealed it.
You make some really good points, but I’m not sure what I want to do, what I feel capable of doing. In other words, I’m not sure I’m capable of radical change in my life, so I’ll probably keep tinkering around the edges, hopefully, perhaps, widening those edges more and more (or eating into them more and more?) until I can see my next step. That’s not really good enough I know, but it’s the best I can do.
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Thank you Sue! You are a smart and perceptive one 🙂 Radical change doesn’t have to happen overnight. One step at a time. I know you already do many things. We all have talents and only so much energy to go around, so do what you can do and that is definitely good enough. As you say, tinkering around the edges you might find yourself eating into them more and more and who knows what that might lead to? You may surprise yourself with what you are capable of.
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I like your faith in me! 👍😀
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I think you are already on your way.
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I hope so Cath! Writing this post was a big step 🙂
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Hello Stefanie, what a marvellous and timely post! I feel like printing it out and sticking it up on my wall. It IS easy to get stuck on mourning the passing of the old, and I DO mourn the passing of so much wildlife, but many of the broken systems have not been serving people for a while now and, as you say, perhaps this is our chance to make something better. I am not a radical person, not an organiser and not a leader, and I have been wondering for some time now what I can do. So while I am pondering this, I shall enjoy reading about your journey, I am sure it will be inspiring and thought-provoking.
(And great metaphors! You should write a book, in fact, I hoped that was what you were going to announce…)
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Oh Helen, thank you! You are very kind. I admit I do think about writing a book, mostly one about gardening and the chickens, especially since my public library now offers a self-publishing platform. So that is swirling around. We’ll see if I can find the time to make something of it 🙂 I know exactly what you mean when you say you are not a radical person, an organizer or a leader, I pretty much feel the same about myself. But, but, but, I am questioning how I see myself, and it is mightily scary and uncomfortable. I keep waiting for others to step up and no one is so I have to ask myself, why not me? So we’ll see where it all leads 🙂
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I for one am intrigued. Whatever you’re working on, I want to read it when it comes out!
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Aw Jeane, thanks! We’ll see if anything happens 🙂
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Well, I can’t wait to read the next chapter! I agree about the power of stories. For me, one of the problems is that a compelling story usually involves an individual overcoming lots of conflict and drama to get he wants, which is pretty much the opposite of what we need as a species right now. Time to write some new ones!
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Thanks Andrew! I am hoping to work on some stories of my own as well as get more involved in the transition movement. I think our current situation on this planet has plenty of opportunity for stories about overcoming conflict and drama. Sometimes I think there is a little bit too much opportunity! 🙂
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