Things That Resound (Part II): Story

A thing resounds when it rings true

Ringing all the bells inside of you

Like a golden sky on a summer's eve

Your heart is tugging at your sleve

And you cannot say why

Part II: Story

Dots on the graph represent single events. The x-axis is time. I suppose you could conceive of the y-axis as space, but I think it would probably be confusing to do so. It's better to think of it as some sort of good / bad continuum, though I fear that this, too, is ultimately misleading.

The most important concept to start with is that

TIME is not the same as THE PASSAGE OF EVENTS

While the physicist knows a specific formula that describes the relationship between these two things (an equation, if you will), we know from practical experience that in the real world no such obvious correlation exists. 

For instance, in the graph below, the passage of events is slow relative to time.

(A real-world example of this might be the Dark Ages)

Conversely, in the graph below, the passage of events is fast relative to time.

(A real-world example would be the Enlightenment)

We all, both as individuals and as groups, have a sense of the relationship between TIME and the PASSAGE OF EVENTS at any given moment. Sometimes we feel that the passage of events is too slow, and we want change (which is, by definition, the presentation of an event or a sequence of events). At other times, we fear that there may be too much change in too short of a time, and we seek to slow down.

But the thing that seems obvious to me is that no one wants zero change. Imagine the following sequence of "events"...

There are few people, if any, who genuinely desire this. I have a theory for why that is.

I think we hate the idea of zero change- of zero events between the beginning and the end- because events are actually the representation of something deeper.

As we all know, events don't stand independent of one another. Event A influences Event B which influences Event C. This is what we call causality.

But even causality isn't the whole story. In fact, the previous sentence inadvertently answers the next question. What is beneath causality? Why do we ask the question "why"?

The reason is that causality is a byproduct of something bigger. It is the byproduct of STORY.

By drawing connections between events, we receive a picture that tells a story. Each individual dot, each separate event, if considered in isolation, is without meaning, and thus, tells no story.

Let us then go back to an earlier question. Why is the graph below unsatisfying?

It's unsatisfying (and deeply so) because there is no story. A beginning and an end, by themselves, are not enough.

If at my birth I am at Point A and at my death I am at Point A, and no single event happened in between, then my birth and death had to have happened at the same time, because it is physically impossible for me to have not moved or acted in some way in the time between them. And if they are the same and there were no intermediate events, then I did not actually exist at all. I would have no story.

However, each of us knows that we have a story- both as individuals and as groups. We know that between point A and point Z,

SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED,
SOMETHING IS HAPPENING, and
SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN

What we call the WHAT HAS HAPPENED, WHAT IS HAPPENING, and WHAT WILL HAPPEN, when grouped together, is story.

While we all experience and, to varying degrees, know our individual stories, it is considerably more difficult to see, know, and believe... The Story.

I would argue that there are four fears that we have about The Story, and I would argue that most all of mankind's troubles with seeing, knowing, and believing The Story boil down to one of these four fears:

1. There is no Story.

Despite the fact that we cannot deny our own individual stories, some fear that the large-scale nature of the universe is not so clearly connected. There is not always causality... Sometimes there is just chance.

2. The Story isn't big.

We love to read books, watch movies, or hear the telling of stories. And despite the beauty of some of the small, momentary stories, we have a special affinity for the big ones. Why do stories like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Chronicles of Narnia become immediate blockbuster hits? Among other things, the reason is their magnitude.

We see something when Aragorn leads an army into an epic battle or when Luke destroys the Death Star that is fundamentally big. We are drawn to these stories like a flying insect to light. But in approaching these stories and seeing their "bigness", we can't help but wonder if such bigness is not confined to the movie screen... to the imagination.

3. The Story isn't good.

Some of us are able to accept that there is a Story and that it is a big story. But when they look at the parts of that story they see around them or the parts that they experience directly, they do not like the story's plot.

4. The Story isn't my story.

Finally, some may accept that there is a Story, that it is big, and that it is good. But they have a story that seems as though it is different from The Story. They think that while there is such a big and good Story being told, they are not a part of it. They have their own story- and while it's considerably smaller and not nearly as good, it's the story that they are a part of and... it will have to do.

The Bible tells a story.

It claims that it is The Story.

It claims that it is big.

It claims that it is good.

And it claims that we are a part of it...

It claims that this Story is our story.