Kurt Vonnegut has a fascinating lecture about the shapes of stories. He goes through several examples of the rises, falls, and good and bad fortune that characters in stories can experience before looking at a story that has a very different structure. Vonnegut uses Hamlet as an example of a story in which things happen without it being clear whether what happens is good or bad. Vonnegut claims that, unlike most other stories, Hamlet tells us the truth: we don’t know enough about life to be able to tell the good news from the bad news. However, he still maintains that we can (and should) notice when we’re happy and appreciate the nice things that we experience.
This reminds me of Alan Watt’s story of the Chinese farmer, which Watts uses to illustrate how we never know what the consequences of good fortune or bad fortune will be. That notion further connects to what Watts has said about life being like a dance; the purpose isn’t to get to a particular place on the dance floor but to enjoy every step along the way, and the same is true of life. So putting these ideas together would result in getting out of the stories that we all tell ourselves and enjoying the dance while it’s happening.
These concepts are fairly new to me so I’m still turning them over in my head. They’ve given me a lot of great stuff to think about and I’m sure I’ll get more out of them over time. For now, I’ve realized how much I look at my own life as a story with the typical rises, falls, and shapes that many stories have. I’ve also been thinking lately about how much my perceptions of life and the things I value in it have changed over time, which fits in nicely with what both Vonnegut and Watts say about good news and bad news. I’m going to try maintaining this perspective for a while and see what it does for me. If I can remember to do so, I’ll let you know what happens. Until next time, take care and enjoy the dance.