Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I would like to share with you the book I am currently reading and some of the thoughts it has provoked in my mind:
"A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller
This is the second book I have read by Donald Miller and there is just something I love about the way he thinks, and how he expresses those thoughts to us in his brilliant books. While I am only on page 61 I am familiar with the general idea of the book because of a Donald Miller lecture series I had the privilege of listening to at my home church this summer. Miller is posed with the challenge of making his life into a movie and therefore into a "story" that an audience will relate to and find captivating or, at least interesting. Easier said than done, right? This of course gets Miller thinking about what makes a story meaningful. His conclusion is this:
"A character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it"
brilliant, right?
This has gotten me thinking about our lives as stories. What kind of stories are we making? The book opens with this and I think it is something interesting for us all to chew on:
"If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn't cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn't tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put on a record to think about the story you'd seen. The truth is, you wouldn't remember that movie a week later except you'd feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo. But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to feel meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with out lives won't make a story meaningful, it won't make a life meaningful either." (Miller xiii)
It reminds me of the movie The American, which I found to be completely awful. After reading this, I know exactly why I walked away from that movie thinking that it was horrible. I couldn't really be clear as to what the main character wanted and even if I did know what he wanted, it was clear at the end that he didn't get it. I walked away from that movie thinking that there has got to be a lot more to a movie, and in turn, to life than that.
When I think about my life I can look and see all these little vingettes of me wanting something and attempting to overcome conflict to get it. One of worst/best qualities is that I am stubborn/persistent. Plain and simple. Sometimes I am persistent and I succeed and other times I am so stubborn and I just don't know when to give up. Usually, the thing I don't know how to give up on, is the story I have formulated in my head and am trying my best to live out. While I know that I have a tendency to create expectations of life that are simply impossibly to live out, maybe viewing my life as a story isn't a bad thing.
SO... my final thought is this, if its not so bad to live out a story, maybe the thing one should focus on is making a story meaningful. If someone watched the story of your life would they laugh? cry? root for you? Or would they walk away, like I did at the end of The American, feeling like you wasted their time and money? Maybe this is the key to making our lives meaningful. These are just some seeds of thoughts. I'msureI will have more to say on this topic as I delve further into the book.
Since I've been listening to The Boss a lot here's one of his songs... and it kind of tells a story
like a river that don't know where its flowing, I took a wrong turn and I just kept going
thanks for reading
-ish*
