| When I started writing this newsletter seven months ago, I thought I was writing about story. I was interested in the parts of story, the impact stories have on our lives, and most importantly, changing our stories so that we can improve the quality of our lives. Looking back on it, I see that story was only one of the ways reality kept revealing itself. I thought identity was something we shaped. Increasingly, it feels like something that reveals itself in relationship with self and others. I thought the protagonist was the main actor of the story. But over time the protagonist became the one who lives before understanding emerges. The narrator slowly became less the one with answers and more the one who notices. Initially, I saw the protagonist and narrator as separate states of mind. Now I see them as partners. One lives the story. The other learns how to tell it. Conflict stopped being something to avoid and became one of the places where relationship could deepen. And today’s topic is theme. I had planned to define theme. Instead, lingering revealed something else. Theme isn’t simply the central idea of a story. It is what slowly reveals itself when we stay in relationship with experience long enough. There is nobody more surprised than me that this newsletter has turned into a vehicle for my own personal growth as a writer. I’m excited to see where lingering will take us and me as I continue to write these newsletter articles. What becomes possible when we linger long enough for reality to surprise us? |
What Becomes Possible When We Linger Long Enough for Reality to Surprise Us?
