What Is A Story?

 So many things are happening now. But what is a story, Jack?  Is it an open diary?  Diaries are supposed to be private, are they not?  Well, life is a play or a story, according to the Bard, right?

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages."

1. Our lives are plays
2. Our lives are stories and plays
3. When we write about our lives, we are writing stories.
4. This is a good place to write stories.
5. This is a good place to write about our lives.

So we can write about the things we know and things that happen, while we think and feel, and record thus.  Also, we can add things that did not happen or are changed in memory.  Now we have fiction.  We announce it as fiction. And go from there. It's a potpouri of adventure to share with the world!  I do it all the time. You can even misspell words occasionally. Nobody cares!  Maybe I'm a bad person because I do these things. I've admitted not having a heart on many occasions.  Maybe that's true. It certainly feels true.  But I do get zapped in that region by outside forces once in awhile. And it feels great. So that would be a caveat.  A caveat in the cavern of the heart (I'm going to pay for using that word, watch, you will see.)

My wife is suffering with a knee that gives her a great deal of pain. So we are going to travel to Duke for an operation. This will be the most intense thing we have done together since meeting six years ago. And just by chance, or not by chance, I am feeling a lot better with a new medication. You just have a gut feeling about people sometime.  Brian, the NP, saw us a few weeks ago, just by chance, and I thought, "I've got to have this guy, he's good!".   And he popped a new pill should have been on the scoreboard years ago, would have eliminated much suffering.  On our second visit!  So now we can do the same thing with the slow folks in Roanoke. Late October?  I don't think so!  How about next week at Duke?  My mind is working better.  Gemini is helping me figure things out. I'm doing a contest for the first time in AP.  Writing better poems without any help.  Gemini is not very good writing verse. She's brilliant elsewhere but imagination is limited. 

So what is the story?  I'm thinking there are no coincidences.  There are few things not planned before birth. Travelers to the other side (and back) often say this. I believe them. Things work out if approached in a positive way. It's part of a plan put together long ago. Be here for the ten thousand year change involving earth and the universe.  It must have been exciting planning that!  A lot of jumping up and down.  Yes, but, by the way, you should be married four times too.  Oh, down to earth again.  Bummers can happen while enjoying a great view.

So there are many things that are picking up now, and once Nonie has her knee fixed, the opportunities will grow.  Mid seventies does not mean it's over. It felt like that recently.  But Brian came along and I want to give him a hug next time we go in there.  They all work hard.  I'm sure it will surprise him a lot when he walks into the exam room and gets his hug.

He's a young guy. Tall, good looking.  I'm sure it will surprise Nonie as well. But I don't roll that way if you're wondering.  I just have a better sense of humor when I'm feeling like I'm not dying soon.  It's another good thing to put in your stories if you can find some time to try. 

Autorank doesn't think I'm successful but that's the remarkable thing about it.  I can write a story, pay for the privilege in time, effort and money, finish it and get judged as a really bad storyteller. Just like that! This effort was a 1.0 according to Rank.  It's a miracle really that  such an "opportunity" exists in this world.  It's the exact opposite of instant gratification.  Thank you Otto.  You're just doing your job for sure.

And this is my story for today, in any case.  It has drama and is not finished. Unless I die today.  That will be drama too.  I wish that I could write it but even Shakespeare could not do that.