The Power To Change The World

Can we just take a moment to revel in the powers of words and stories? Yes? Ok, then.

A story can save a life. A story can change a life. (And isn’t that the sort of story we all hope to write?) Genre doesn’t matter. Style and voice don’t matter. The power of words is more basic than that.

We live in societies programed to see art as somehow lesser. Making a living wage at any art is all but impossible.

I recently bing-watched a Korean drama. As I do. Set in the Joseon era, it centered around the creation and production of the highly prized royal white porcelain. It was awesome to see a portrayal of artists being respected, valued, and honored for their work.

(The series, in case you’re interested, is Jung-yi: Goddess of Fire, and it was fantastic except for two point: an Inevitable Heroic Death and the very end. The former needed to happen to make the story work, and the latter needed to happen to make the history work, but both felt shoehorned in, out of sync with the rest. Also, the Japanese in Jung-yi all sounds like it went through a Shatner filter, which makes me giggle.)

We all, at one time or another, run into the attitude that, for whatever reason, we should be doing “more” with our lives. I’ve been told I could make a decent career out of my current day job. And while it’s great to know others think I’m doing well, such comments give rise to a small voice that wonder if I shouldn’t do that – more actively pursue that sort of career – even if it cuts further into writing time and energy. Because that is somehow more beneficial to the world.

How screwed up is that?

But that will be the reality for all of us until some greater change happens. So it is important – so, so important – to remind ourselves of the power of stories.

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