To Be Continued

The power of story

Photo by Reuben Juarez on Unsplash

"Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one." Terry Pratchett

As long as humans have looked up at the sky and marveled at the dome of stars above, we have told stories to help us wrestle with the questions of “why” and “how”. There is something particularly beautiful about creation stories which are often earthy, metaphorical, full of poetry and powerful images. I remember reading J.R.R Tolkien’s book, The Simarillian and being totally charmed by his poetic description of creation. In his telling, The One created the First Beings and taught them music, which they then used to sing the world into its first becoming. Interestingly, one of the First Beings began to sing in dissonance and so conflict and discord also came into the world. Ok, it makes sense that a musician who has a fascination with mystery would love a story that describes all of creation being set into motion with a song. The Simarillian story is a Tolkien imagining, but there is actually an ancient Pythagorean theory that suggests that the movements of the earth, sun and planets create a kind of Music of the Spheres. More recently scientists have recorded deep in the ocean an ultra low hum that is always being “sung” by the earth. When I think about a great song threading through all the universe, something in me nods and says, “Yes, there is something in this story that feels true.”

My friend author/theologian/pastor, Philip Gulley, was asked by a reader of his books of fiction if the people who populate his novels were “real.” He responded with the perfect answer. “They may not be real, but they are true.”