I Love Stories

I Love Stories

Do you love stories as much as you did as a child? I know I do, though I have lived without caring much about them in different periods of my life. Sure, this has probably happened to many people as there are numerous other things to think about. Yes, the world is full of other kinds of wonders besides stories. We have all seen them. Of course, I have never seen the Taj Mahal, but if I had read a good story describing it my day would definitely still be better than not having seen that actual wonder itself. And strangely enough, it may even add to my desire to actually see the real thing.

Indeed, I love stories in whatever form they come in. So if it is on a screen, written, or told, I love it all just the same. Thus stories give us a feeling of wonder and enjoyment which we cannot get from anything else. For they tap into our imaginations, in such a way, that they give us a sense of inner satisfaction about the universe on many levels that is mysterious and hard to explain. Stories nearly always make us feel better, no matter what. They even make us think about many things concerning the human condition in general. That is why most cultures have a mythology.

Furthermore, Arthurian mythology unites the French and British more than anything else, because it’s their shared mythology. It is neither French nor British exclusively. Yet it still has a cultural identity that unites them both in a mysterious way. And even though  those stories are predominantly British as far as their setting and content is concerned, it is not British mythology proper. Britain has no mythology. It never did. Therefore stories have many cultural aspects to them that are loaded with meaning. And some of them are used over and over, such as particular archetypes and symbols. Of course, Jung wrote about those things in depth.

Now story writing, as an art form, is not that different from doing pottery. For you start with words, which is much like clay, and then you sculpt paragraphs, either adding or removing material whenever necessary. Then finally the artist refines the work and makes it polished, which is afterwards put out into the world like the Greek pottery one sees in The British Museum or the ones which exist in private collections. Either way, it doesn’t matter how much it is seen. Yet in the production of these works of art the principles involved bear a similar process. True, the activities engaged in are not exactly the same, yet artists of those two different mediums would be able to relate to each other on some level as having expressed something that satisfied them according to a similar process.

So stories are my joy, even though I love other subjects, such as: philosophy, psychology, history, physics, cosmology, astronomy, and music. Yet certainly there are numerous other subjects besides these that interest me as well. Too much to mention, and too tedious to go through. We all know that feeling of not being able to reduce everything we think and are interested in into a limited list, or a limited set of labels, as it can give us a sense of exhaustion when we try, because we know that our nature is more dynamic than it allows, for it always seems to exclude something. It never quite captures our inner essence. What exactly do we know about ourselves? We are mostly a mystery, just like the cosmos. Yet there is always order somewhere: it always lurks in wait for us to discover.

And it is obviously a fact that in their craft, some story writers have been very intellectual and formal in their conceptions and manner, but nothing can beat reading a writer who draws one in with a certain kind of magic and takes one’s breath away, because when this happens, one finds oneself returning to that writer again and again with an eagerness to read them once more, or maybe even read everything they’ve written, if such a thing is even possible, considering the vast amount of written material which exists in the world. However, one of the most important things about discovering such a writer, as I have mentioned, which are the ones we love to read, is the amount they may inspire us if we are an aspiring story writer ourselves.

Therefore, with my words and my art, I welcome all my future readers. What is more, I hope that some good can come from anything we may all collectively learn in our journey through stories and life. Also, it is an amazing, though uncertain universe we all live in, and stories afford us some joy in the brief time we are here. So good luck to everyone, and with blessings aplenty. For the world needs more love. Thus I will try my best to send you some.