No Story

The best story often is no story. This conclusion, I admit, is a product of my preference for happy endings. And by happy endings I mean an ending that reminds me that everything I’ve been looking for I already have, and that love is life’s only true organizing principle. I don’t think I can be reminded of this often enough. Whenever a story arrives at this fine place, it is over. The illusion of conflict, of loss, of lack, of need, of worthlessness and hopelessness has been dispelled. The hero is at rest in himself, and can view life simply as it is, for his war with it has ended. There is no story to tell about life, because he sees the world and his life as complete and unbreakable.

I have been to such a place in my own life. For a moment, the buzz of storytelling quiets, and I find myself in a world in need of no explanation or correction. It is quite a relief to discover this job no one ever asked me to do is over. Such moments don’t last long, however. Soon, I might even find myself telling a story about how life requires no story.

But this is to be expected. I am a storyteller, after all. I love finding my way back to that place where there’s no story left to tell. How strange that every time I find the world again it feels new. I am like a happy amnesiac, who gets to keep meeting the woman he loves for the first time every morning. It’s true you know. After all, outside the house of love there is absolutely nothing; within it, there is everything.

Write Within Yourself: An Author's Companion. "A book to keep nearby whenever your writer's spirit needs feeding." Deb Caletti.

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