A brief meditation.

[matt_doyle]

I was put on this earth to tell stories. There are many things I do acceptably, but only one I do exceptionally, and this is it. Every aspiration I ever had boils down to stories. By writing, I create stories. By role-playing or being a dungeon-master, I make stories. By taking part in theater I helped to construct stories. My desire to be a librarian? To be surrounded by stories, and I gave it up when I realized I wanted a more active part. Political canvassing is about convincing people why a certain story matters. My one-time thoughts of attending law school were not out of a passion for law but an interest in the courtroom, in asserting the supremacy of my story over that of the opposing counsel. Those few times I have pondered going to seminary, it was because in my religious life, there is a greater story that I believe in, that I would like to be a part of it, and share with a receptive audience.  When I declared a (later-abandoned) major in psychology, it was because of an interest in therapy. I played the therapist on an amateur level for many friends over the years, and if I did well, it is because I was able to listen to them, and recast the story they told about their lives in a more positive way, and did it well enough that (for a little while) they believed their narrative instead of my own.

 

If you believe that people have a purpose in life, telling stories is, I think, unquestionably mine.  It's all I really want to do.  Everything else is a complication (positive or negative, and there's a lot of positive).  Every other job I might take that doesn't make me a part of a storytelling experience is a delay, a frustration, an obstacle, however necessary.  Storytelling is my vocation.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.