Living a good story
The movies I like best are the slow literary movies that don’t seem to be about anything and yet are about everything at the same time.
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... most of our greatest fears are relational. It’s all the stuff about forgiveness and risking rejection and learning to love. We think stories are about getting money and security, but the truth is, it all comes down to relationships …
Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
I've had this book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, for quite a while, after recommendations from writing chums (one of those books I bought before I had time to read it). But on Sunday I was catching a train into the city to meet some old friends and needed a book to read, so I took it. Somehow, even though I did lunch with friends, other things at home, then went to Church, I'm already half way. If you know anything about Donald Miller you know he wrote a memoir of sorts called Blue Like Jazz (to be read with discernment, as all books are). Well, he was then approached by a couple of movie directors, who wanted to turn the book into a movie, and in the process of doing so he got to participate in editing his own life, for real. And through that process he learnt something about how to actually live a good story. Now he runs Storyline conferences (the path of inspiration in one's life is a curious thing in itself).
I am actually rather interested in the Storyline material, particularly the elements of "embracing conflict", because all good stories need conflict, but I loathe and detest conflict (incidentally, here is a good post on The Key to Resolving Conflict), and I've tried to overcome some relational fears and the results were unsatisfying, and wouldn't make a good scene any kind of movie. It's all very intriguing, and now I want to go and edit my life. But recognising that it all needs to be kept in the perspective of God's sovereignty, acknowledging that the best-laid plans might not actually be the best plans, and that no matter how hard we try some things are not within the realm of our control.