Just Write

A new book of interest to writers (and readers) arrived this week at the library:

How Fiction Works by James Wood

What makes a story a story? What is style? What’s the connection between realism and real life? These are some of the questions James Wood answers in How Fiction Works, the first book-length essay by the preeminent critic/staff writer at The New Yorker and visiting lecturer in English and American literature at Harvard.  Ranging widely—from Homer to David Foster Wallace, from What Maisie Knew to Make Way for Ducklings—Wood takes the reader through the basic elements of the art, step by step.  The result is nothing less than a philosophy of the novel—plainspoken, funny, blunt—in the traditions of E. M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. It sums up two decades of insight with wit and concision. (from the Publisher)

BROKEN GOLDEN RULE

I didn’t know you.

You were a stranger to me that day.  But there was an expectation.  A belief of trust, a belief of goodness.

For I had done nothing to you.  Yet you destroyed it, destroyed a deep part of me.

In those minutes we were together, what words did I say that made you decide to tear apart all I believed in.  Trusted in.

You broke the truth that I had always been committed to. Belief that if one is good and kind to others then they will do also to you.  Isn’t that the golden rule?

We talked, we laughed, I caused you no pain.  I kept true to the unspoken bargain that is made when people come together.  Weren’t you obligated to the same?

But your expectation was not one of trust, but of self-interest, selfishness.

It did not matter who you hurt, who’s life you effected.  You were going to get what you wanted.  For that next moment of needed pleasure, you were going to take that which did not belong to you.

You desired it so you deserved it.  Is that what you thought?  How many lives have you effected in this struggle with selfishness.  Do you know?  Do you care?

by Peje

I opened one eye, trying not to look directly at the huge animal standing in my bedroom, watching me watch him.

“Be calm,” he conveyed to me.

Obviously, he did not say the words, yet I understood that they came from him.  Just as the next understanding floated across my consciousness: “take only what works for you and forget the rest.”  Okay, I thought, I can do that.  I can be an empty vessel ready and willing to stay open to this huge bear’s words of advice and accept only what felt right.

“I am here because you asked for my help and I want to help you.”  Now, calling on a black bear for clarification and understanding could be considered reckless by some but I knew that a power animal’s appearance was an agreement being fulfilled.

“Like me, it is almost time for you to come out of hibernation. Soon you will be feeling much better and will be able to get yourself out there, opportunities will be all around you and you only need to notice them for good things to come to you.”

“Additionally, my message to you is two-part.  First, know that as you shed layers of identity and ego, you will discover that you (just like we all are) are part of eternity and of the One.”

"Second, please know that when there seems to be no path to follow, if you go within to find your deepest resources, then the light of inner intuition and knowing will help you to find your way home.”

I understand, I thought.

Thank you Bear.

He nodded his big head once and turned around to leave.  I watched his form disintegrate as Bear became a part of my dream world.  I woke up with a peaceful knowing and calmness instilled by Bear’s words.