CHASING DOWN THE MUSE: Living the imagined life

“You know, story is a very complicated word.” “” C.E.M. Aison

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We live in and by story. All of us. No one is immune.

So little of what we call story is the simple reporting of fact. Perhaps that is where the complexity lies.

The layer of human thought put to happenings changes them all.

So many epigrams merely sound true.

So why not make it just what you or I want it to be “” it being truth or reality as we see it?

As sanderlings and turnstones skitter about in the white foam of low-slapping waves next to me, I ply the beach at Crystal Cove once again. This is where I tend to dump the “story” that in the course of a week becomes a part of daily existence.

I had risen in the pre-dawn hours, unable to sleep, restless, and with my mind filled with stories of all shapes, sizes and hues. I could hear the waves as they surged against the shore in the dark. The breeze set the neighborhood wind chimes to playing their music.

The weather had changed and with this alteration I was drawn out, drawn to the sea where I longed to spend every waking hour as it turned out. As I walked, I pondered this complex word “story.”

Going to a variety of resources I had found that definitions of the word “story” are almost as complex as the word may be itself.

Many sources define it as, first, an account of an incident or a series of incidents “” historical or otherwise “” either true or invented. Secondly, it is a report of an item of news. Then, of course, it is also all the rooms on a certain level of a building. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. The real complications are in the element of “either true or invented.”

Every narrative, every bit of news or gossip, what we read, hear, see it’s all story. And as story, it is up to us just what we choose to act on and believe as fact. It is amazing how little thought often is given to these things.

Several years ago when I was still very active in a group called The Artist Conference Network, “story” in all its many, oft-times complicated aspects was more clear to me than it has seemed of late. The rules “” called “distinctions of speaking” “” we operated under differentiated between a straight report and the embellishments that were “story.” Anything said that was a part of what we chose to call the “psychological” was simply a story we were telling ourselves.

On the other hand, the “creative” realm was where things got stirred up. That story was basically something someone made up was apparent; that the realm of possibility allowed we could each make up a different story was more real than sometimes it seems to me these days. I guess I have allowed myself to get caught back up in the many narratives and forgotten that in fact it is possible to make another reality, to create anew.

The French paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin states, “Even when we are exercising all our faculties of belief, fortune will not necessarily turn out in the way we want but in the way it must.” No matter how many stories are told nor how much they may differ one from another, the “truth” will be what it will. This being so, then why do we bother with our stories? If that layer of human thought doesn’t in fact change things ?

With all due respect to someone much wiser than I, I just don’t buy it. There IS power in thought and intention. While we do not fully understand it, when you focus on something hard enough, when you live a story as if it were true, there seems to be something in the universe that moves with you.

Yes, story is a very complicated word. That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.

“If one advances confidently in the direction of their dreams, and endeavors to lead a life which they have imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” “” Henry David Thoreau

CHERRIL DOTY is an artist, writer, and creative coach exploring and enjoying the many mysteries of life in the moment. She can be reached by e-mail at cherril@cherrildoty.com or by phone at (949) 251-3883.