e universe is made of stories

THE UNIVERSE IS MADE OF STORIES

The poet Muriel Rukeyser said the universe is composed of stories, not of
atoms. The physicist Werner Heisenberg declared that the universe is
made of music, not of matter.

And we believe that if you habitually expose yourself to toxic stories and
music, you could wind up living in the wrong universe, where it's
impossible to become the gorgeous genius you were born to be.
That's why we implore you to nourish yourself with delicious, nutritious
tales and tunes that inspire you to exercise your willpower for your
highest good.

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"The only war that matters is the war against the imagination.
All other wars are subsumed by it."
—Diane Di Prima, "Rant," from Pieces of a Song

*

Astrologer Caroline Casey offers an apt metaphor to illustrate how crucial
it is for us to hear and read good stories. She notes that if we don't have
enough of the normal, healthy kind of iodine in our bodies, we absorb
radioactive iodine, which has entered the food chain through nuclear test
explosions conducted in the atmosphere. Similarly, unless we fill ourselves
up with stories that invigorate us, we're more susceptible to sopping up
the poisonous, degenerative narratives.

*

Novelist Ursula K. Le Guin decries the linear perspective that dominates
modern storytelling. She says it's "like an arrow, starting here and going
straight there and THOK! hitting its mark." Furthermore, she complains,
plots are usually advanced through conflict, as if interesting action can't
possibly arise from any other catalyst.

I invite you to rebel against these oppressive conventions. Wean yourself
from tales that have reductive plot lines fueled primarily by painful
events. Celebrate the luminous mysteries that have shaped your own life
story: the meandering fascinations that didn't lead to tidy conclusions,
the wobbly joys that fed your soul but didn't serve your ego's ambitions,
the adventures whose success revolved around brain-teasing
breakthroughs instead of exhausting triumphs over suffering.

*

How did it come to be that what we call the news is reported solely by
journalists? There are so many other kinds of events besides the narrow
band favored by that highly specialized brand of storytellers. Indeed,
there are many phenomena that can literally not even be perceived by
journalists. Their training, their temperament, and their ambitions make
vast areas of human experience invisible to them.

"Ninety-six percent of the cosmos puzzles astronomers." I loved reading
that headline on the CNN website. It showed that at least some of our
culture's equivalents of high priests, the scientists, are humble enough to
acknowledge that the universe is made mostly of stuff they can't even
detect, let alone study.

If only the journalists were equally modest. Since they're not, we'll say it:
The majority of everything that happens on this planet is invisible to
them.

*

In the early years of Christianity, there were hundreds of books
interpreting the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. But by 325 A.D., a
group backed by the political and military might of the Roman Empire had
determined which few of the stories about Christ would thereafter be
considered the canonical New Testament, and which would be regarded as
heretical bilge. No better evidence exists for the saying, "History is a tale
told by the victors."

Keep this in mind as you strategize your way through your personal War
of the Stories. Your account of events may have more truth in it than
everyone else's conflicting tales, but that won't carry much weight unless
you obtain the power to enforce your version.


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