Reflections 14th November

On my mind this week.

I've continued to notice the amount of discordant energy in the news; ideas, headlines, observations and other items that seem to make us restless. It has been challenging to put a name to, until listening to the news this morning, there was a tribute to Wilbur Smith, who died aged 85. In an interview from many years ago, he talked about his early success. He wrote his first book to be a commercial success with the idea that he would make a living as a writer. It failed miserably. Giving up the idea of being a writer, he wrote "When the Lion Feeds" for himself, for enjoyment, and the rest is a history defined by 140 million books sold. He succeeded when he lived his narrative, not a story.

Then it struck me - the difference between story and narrative and the dissonance that can exist between the two. Stories are neat packages, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. They have characters, often a moral, and they are about other people. Stories are an industry belov…