Meaning and Story

"In the dark times, will there be singing? Yes. There will be singing. About the dark times." Bertol Brecht

Our life is our journey. Our journey is our story. Our story is our legacy. In her book, Writing For Your Life, Deena Metzger says that we each must come to know our story, for in the end, our story is all that we leave behind. Traces of our lives, our loves, our attempts, our failures, our victories, our passions, our losses, our dreams, our desires – the particularity of our lives. They may be found in journals, discovered in diaries, cherished in the hearts of our loved ones and tucked away in pockets of memories or may die in silence, scattered with ashes, buried in the grave. Pieces of ourselves, left to interpretation. Metaphorically speaking, reader/interpreter/inheritor of our stories, be they children, grandchildren, friend, enemy, historian or politician, sift through the remains of our lives only to imagine, surmise, frame and piece together what ultimately is a puzzle of perceptions. What good is our story? Asking this question pre-supposes that anyone would care about the details of our lives. Certainly, one could argue that autobiographies enlighten, guide, give perspective, fill in gaps of information, satisfy curiosity. But is this the true value of our story? If life is journey and journey is story and story is legacy, then the authoring of our lives is the authoring of our story. Truth and lies, autobiography and fiction, author and interpreter all interwoven, boiling down to one thing – meaning. But what is meaningful to one may have a different meaning for another. The interpretation of the event, the story, the life, is directly affected by the lens through which the event/story/life is being interpreted. Regardless of the fact that meaning may be relative and subjective, there is one absolute. The story itself has meaning only in so much that it is read, reflected upon, considered, examined and sought. If our story is our journey and our journey our life, then, as Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Deena Metzger says that we each must come to know our story – which implies that it is possible to live our lives without knowing our stories – without finding meaning in our experiences – without examining the legacy we are leaving behind. Ultimately, then, the greatest value in our story is how it may impact the living of our lives. It is in the intentional and conscious examination and authoring of our lives that the greatest impact can be made and the greatest legacy may be left.

Never is life and meaning so tested as in times of tragedy, loss and grief. The story of our lives becomes framed within the context of circumstances that prompt, compel and force us to ask questions that through the ordinariness of our days fall mute and remain disguised, camouflaged, or denied. As the plot of our story becomes more complex, the meta-text – the marginalia – the highlights and underlining add color and texture. Meaning begins to take shape. Chapters here-to-for unwritten, unspeakable, unimagined, fill pages, rip out hearts and bring us to our knees. Despair, confusion, uncertainty, anger, rage, loneliness, compassion and tenderness swallow us whole. Like Red Riding Hood in the belly of the wolf, we must digest our story in order to be transformed by it. As Deena Metzger says, we must come to know our story. I would add, we must come to know who we are within the context of our story, thereby we become not only character within the story, but interpreter and author. It is from this premise that I assert that writing our story is a an act of healing and a way of creating meaning from the events of our lives. And thus, Purple Sage Arts was born.