We need a new Story. The “Great Lockdown” is revealing that the old Story we have been using to give meaning to Western life can’t handle our new reality. The old story promotes individualism, “us” vs. “them” duality, inequality and a relentless consumerism that was driving us and the planet to death.
Now, we get to create a new story about a new world that is possible because of this global pandemic. What kind of world shall we create? What do you want to be able to say about yourself? Your life? What values do you hope shape our imagination?
A friend of mine is working on a new project in the wake of COVID-19. She is asking the rest of us to write and submit new fairytales.
“Do you want stories about this crisis and what might come from it?” I asked.
“Not necessarily,” she said. “I am issuing an invitation to imagination. I am inviting people to be creative and playful and open to wonder. If we have any hope for creating a better world together, we have to start with tales so powerful they woo us to awaken.” I love that – being wooed to awakening.
I recently encountered this extraordinary tale called “The Great Realization.” It’s a wonderful example of the ways stories shape how we give meaning to our experience and how we create our world through our telling.
I’d like to invite you to take the time to write your own fairytale of what you see and sense happening within yourself and within our world. If you are open to it, I would be honored if you shared them with me via email, and note if you are open to having them shared with this email list. We would all love to learn from you.
At some point, we will be tempted to “return to normal.” We will need our Stories, birthed in this time of wondering and wandering, to tell us this truth: A far better world is waiting to be dreamed into being. We simply need enough of us to tell the Story.
Prayer for the Week
God of the present moment,
God who in Jesus stills the storm
and soothes the frantic heart;
bring hope and courage to your people
as we wait in uncertainty.
Bring hope that you will make us the equal
of whatever lies ahead.
Bring us courage to endure what cannot be avoided,
for your will is health and wholeness;
you are God, and we need you.
Amen.
From For People Facing Great Uncertainty, (New Zealand Prayer Book, p. 747)
