It feels as if we are living in apocalyptic times—extreme weather events and climate change, the pandemic, and now the threat of World War III starting with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Apocalypse—the end of time! The end of the world as we know it. Now it is more important than ever that you write before the apocalypse.
Failure Responses
Our responses to recent disasters haven’t always been good. We’ve dumped chemical pesticides all over Africa to combat a swarm of locusts. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/locust-plague-hit-east-africa-pesticide-solution-may-have-dire-consequences#:~:text=The%20swarms%20began%20forming%20in,Somalia%2C%20Ethiopia%2C%20and%20Kenya
And we’ve seen a million Americans die from Covid19 due in part to vaccine hesitancy and misinformation. We continue to bungle our preparedness for climate change.
Storytelling is a Survival Skill
Stories have long been recognized as a way humans give shape and meaning to their perceptions. Because we interpret what we see and hear, using language, our sensory input takes on new meaning. We tell stories about what happened, infusing them with the sounds and textures of our world. Our recipes, handed down from generation to generation, provide more than steps to creating a tasty dish—they encapsulate culture and traditions around the table of family and friends.
In an apocalypse, it is not only our responses to the events that fall short of what is needed. When the disasters pile up, our stories become frayed and broken. We see a disruption in our cultural narratives, with splinters of fear and shards of hate fracturing our traditions and commonalities.
To survive, we need to invest more heavily in writing our stories, in preserving our thoughts and values, in creating and re-creating new cultural narratives to replace or supplant the broken and lost versions.
Building Blocks
“A concept is a brick. It can be used to build the courthouse of reason. Or it can be
thrown through the window.”
Brian Massumi – Introduction to A Thousand Plateaus
Everyone has the building blocks needed to write their cultural narratives. In your story, you may want to break down the false gods that are vying for acceptance and use your concepts as bricks to throw. You may have stories to commemorate and memorialize the past to provide a route to happiness or wholeness again. You may provide insights into places you’ve been and share understanding that enables adjustment to change.
Right Now, Write Now
So write short stories about the people you knew and create an album of community. Write recipes adorned with family photos gathered around eating the dishes you’ve prepared and illustrate cultural values. Create a travel blog and take us around the world. Join us during NaNoWriMo and write your novel, with characters and setting only you, in your unique set of experiences and perceptions, can imagine.
Write Before the Apocalypse happens, so we have the cultural narratives to protect us. Write while the Apocalypse happens, to help us all survive. Now is the time to write. Don’t wait!