Stories

I love a good story as do all of us. Stories help us understand and put order into the chaos that we live every day. We get up in the morning and we have no idea what will happen to us as we live out the story of our lives. Today we could be a hero, a victim, a villain, a bystander or a witness. Tomorrow we don't know what part we will play. Life is confusing and chaotic and mostly good.

As we look back at our lives we start to create a narrative or a story about our life so that we can become the heroes or heroines of our own story.  In ancient time we revered storytellers and held them in high esteem, today we still do but we hold the actors who play in the stories to a higher regard than the writers who create the story. 

I love my stories to be told in printed form or a song, but I will embrace a well-told story done on stage or in a visual medium. My wife loves her stories to be told in a visual form but still likes stories told in printed form. She does not fully appreciate the stories that we hear in musical form as much as I do. 

Whatever the format a good story puts order into our confusion, a good story has five components, characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution.The plot of a good story has a beginning, a middle and a resolution. The setting is where and when the story takes place, and the characters are the people the story is about, or who are in the story. Every story has a conflict to solve. The plot centres on this conflict and the ways in which the characters attempt to resolve the problem.

As we age and look at the end of our life, we begin to think of how we can leave a legacy to those we leave behind. To do this we start to create the story of our life, and in doing so, hopefully, we find the means to resolve the conflicts we have had in our lives and find a way to resolve them in a way that is not hurtful to others. 

When we look at the story of our life, who are the characters that share our story, who are the supporting cast, the good and bad guys we have shared our life story with over the years. Are we the heroes in our life that we imagined we would be when we were ten years old? If we aren't is it too late to become that hero or can we rewrite the last few chapters so that if we are not the hero, perhaps we will play a better part?