I love a good story. From Aesop's fables to old folk and fairy tales, from Michael Crichton to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from Homer to Tolkien, a good yarn is simply an experience that's hard to put words to.
I can tell you about the stories I really like, though. Shortly after I read the Chronicles of Narnia when I was eight, I started reading Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls was my first. And it was dark. Was it hopeless? Robert Jordan didn't know. Pablo knew there was no hope. Maria knew that there was. Pilar knew that there was. Robert Jordan lived (and died) for hope. It was dark, but it wasn't hopeless. Hemingway explores the nature of hopelessness more deeply in other novels like A Farewell to Arms, which I deeply enjoyed - but only read once, because the hopelessness takes hold like gangrene.
I like the dark stories because they are real. But let me tell you about the best stories of all - and they have some of the darkest moments, too. These are the stories where, out of the darkness, something rises up, all white and shiny. There is hope. The night is darkest before the dawn, and all that. On the third day, look to the east... a rider on a white horse... a mouse with a legendary sword... the antihero, with one last bullet... Dues ex Machina. Lumiere.
... but you have to believe. You have to take a stand, even when everything is falling apart. You have to keep on fighting to the end. You've got to keep on fighting, because Neo might not be dead. Not yet.
Not yet.
But all too often, in the book that is your life, we flip through the last few chapters, wondering how we got here. We re-read those last lines, over and over again, thinking... no. No. That's not true. That's impossible.
Do me a favor. Open up your book and re-read it, starting from the good parts. Read every detail out loud. Embrace it. Read through the darkness. Read through the pain. Read through the hard parts. Read through the hopelessness. Is there hope? You don't know. Pablo knows there isn't.
Let me tell you something. Pablo should be shot.
Maria knew, and so do you. Just because you don't feel it right now doesn't mean it's not there. Right now, you've read the darkest parts, and it's getting darker, and colder, and emptier...
But the night is darkest just before the dawn. You've read your story up until now. Now, I want you to take those blank pages ahead, and I want you to flip through them all. All of them. Go ahead, do it.
This is your story. It's in your hands. You have to believe it.
Now, turn the page, and start writing.
I can tell you about the stories I really like, though. Shortly after I read the Chronicles of Narnia when I was eight, I started reading Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls was my first. And it was dark. Was it hopeless? Robert Jordan didn't know. Pablo knew there was no hope. Maria knew that there was. Pilar knew that there was. Robert Jordan lived (and died) for hope. It was dark, but it wasn't hopeless. Hemingway explores the nature of hopelessness more deeply in other novels like A Farewell to Arms, which I deeply enjoyed - but only read once, because the hopelessness takes hold like gangrene.
I like the dark stories because they are real. But let me tell you about the best stories of all - and they have some of the darkest moments, too. These are the stories where, out of the darkness, something rises up, all white and shiny. There is hope. The night is darkest before the dawn, and all that. On the third day, look to the east... a rider on a white horse... a mouse with a legendary sword... the antihero, with one last bullet... Dues ex Machina. Lumiere.
... but you have to believe. You have to take a stand, even when everything is falling apart. You have to keep on fighting to the end. You've got to keep on fighting, because Neo might not be dead. Not yet.
Not yet.
But all too often, in the book that is your life, we flip through the last few chapters, wondering how we got here. We re-read those last lines, over and over again, thinking... no. No. That's not true. That's impossible.
Do me a favor. Open up your book and re-read it, starting from the good parts. Read every detail out loud. Embrace it. Read through the darkness. Read through the pain. Read through the hard parts. Read through the hopelessness. Is there hope? You don't know. Pablo knows there isn't.
Let me tell you something. Pablo should be shot.
Maria knew, and so do you. Just because you don't feel it right now doesn't mean it's not there. Right now, you've read the darkest parts, and it's getting darker, and colder, and emptier...
But the night is darkest just before the dawn. You've read your story up until now. Now, I want you to take those blank pages ahead, and I want you to flip through them all. All of them. Go ahead, do it.
This is your story. It's in your hands. You have to believe it.
Now, turn the page, and start writing.
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