The seed -painting by Silvia Pastore
Stories inform, entertain, inspire. They make us think, dream, identify, or divert us from reflecting about what is going on inside us or in our present situation. Images and story lines reinforce each other. If we can’t detect the symbols images hold for us, be they evoked in paintings, literature, in the frame by frame images in cinema, or in the media, a story may grip with sensational elements, but remain otherwise flat. Feedback can vary, to use comic extremes, from, ‘What a thrilling yarn’ to, ‘What the hell was that all about?’ Stories that hang in the middle might satisfy both contemplatives and the sensationalist, and occasionally become best sellers.
A story well told acts like a seed in the psyche, is subtle and opens cracks in the unconscious with contradictions to ponder upon. A story well told is often mysterious, far from obvious at first impression. A story well told takes deep questions into our dreams. Then, out of the blue, we’re struck by an insight, and a door to the imagination opens.
I’ve been wondering about the Trump story. How many of you have had an inner voice saying, ‘You can’t make this up. It can’t be, how does he get away with it?’ even while chapter after chapter the public across the world was spun into a nightmarish trance. The surreal and sensational element the Trump protagonist brought to the world stage has wrought continuous fascination and cravings for the next cliff-hanger. ‘Wow, he says it like it is … a kind of superman who gives a fuck about good manners or political correctness.’
No Aha moment, no insight, no transformation, just point by point affirmations for the disenchanted, the frustrated, to let it all hang out, a continuous clowning spectacle, embodying, well, possessed by the archetype of the sulking child whose gratification is denied, the Id with its breath-taking rages. No contradiction here. No subtle narrative, more like an attention-demanding prologue. The meanwhile addicted public won’t take kindly to the sobering. Where does it go from here?
For this prologue to develop from a catalytic incident into a worthwhile story begs the questions, and not just from ungratified Americans, but from ungratified people all over the world … and though I could dare answers, they’d only resonate with a few psychologically aware, the already converted. So I include myself as curious as to where those vital questions will find ground to grow:
What is denied, and by whom?
Course of Mirrors 
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lovely stars. Thanks Phillip ☼
LikeLiked by 1 person
The comedian Dave Chappelle might have an answer here:
“Nearing the end of his monologue, Chappelle struck a more sympathetic tone. “For the first time in the history of America, the life expectancy of white people is dropping — because of heroin, because of suicide,” he said. “All these white people out there that feel that anguish, that pain, they’re mad because they think nobody cares — maybe they don’t.”
Chappelle continued:
But let me tell you something, I know how that feels. I promise you, I know how that feels. If you’re a police officer and every time you put your uniform on, you feel like you’ve got a target on your back. You’re appalled by the ingratitude that people have when you would risk your life to save them — ooh man, believe me, believe me, I know how that feels. Everyone knows how that feels. But here’s the difference between me and you: You guys hate each other for that, and I don’t hate anybody. I just hate that feeling. That’s what I fight through. That’s what I suggest you fight through. You’ve got a find a way to live your life. You’ve got to find a way to forgive each other. You’ve got to find a way to find joy in your existence in spite of that feeling.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂 thanks for the article, Joe. Glad I can view a few of those per month behind the paywall.
LikeLike
Advertising – everything is advertising. And I doubt many of the folks Chapelle mentions read even their 3 free articles per month. And to think how flush the newspapers were with return on equity before the Internet. Not to mention what are folks supposed to line the floor of their bird cages with now? But the story is also in The Guardian and elsewhere. I just happened to see it in the Times, and I thought Chappelle’s comments spoke to your post, but maybe not.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, I agree. Chapelle is a great human, who uplifts and warms the heart.
Re: actual newspapers, I don’t have a bird cage to line, but I buy the local paper every week, mainly to hide the 5 or so bottles of red a week in my recycling bin.
And I should take my conscience to task and support the online Guardian.
LikeLike
Thanks for the video, Joe. I missed that last night!
Ashen, thank you for this wonderful post. You nailed the difference between a story well told and a flat, nightmarish spectacle which raises many questions that few will be able to answer. My vote goes to the fertile ground of the psychologically aware. I hope to see more of those seeds sprout in the coming years until enough people acquire the imagination to envision and manifest a better world.
By the way, I received a big box of books in the mail yesterday and your copy will be on the way soon.
Blessings,
Jeanie
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m pleased you like this post, Jean. I’m never sure whether my ramblings are worthwhile. Your resonance cheers.
Big box of your books arrived. Wow. I remember the pleasure of physically holding the bound pages of my labour of love.
I look forward to holding and reading yours.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for your lucid analysis of Trump style populism Ashen.
To me it feels like all the unresolved traumas and agonies festering away below consciousness can find a vehicle in populism, on the left as well as well as the right, to emerge into the world rather like pus seeping from a wound.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes. Dark corners are lit up, for sure. A self regulating psyche at work that exposes the deep rifts in our social fabric. A total shift in priorities is required, but the resistance to such changes is huge.
Interestingly, my faithful washing machine just had it’s day, flooding the kitchen floor.
LikeLike
It’s only the beginning I fear – thanks Ashen, great post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hear you, have similar intuitions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nicely put. I share your curiosity.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a crazy year we are all going through! Thank you Ashen for a thought provoking post. It feels to me as if some higher force has thought “OK! I am going to make you see that something has to change.” Being the humans that we are, some of us have found change very difficult, some of us have experienced loss, Some of us have been forced to re-evaluate. Some of us are in complete denial. I could go on. As for Trump I feel he is throwing a tantrum that he can’t get his own way. It is interesting to be able to stand back and observe. That is the way I feel I have survived so far. Isn’t it interesting to see the ways people behave under pressure. Some behave atrociously, some allow their fears to take over. Some behave heroically, and some bury their heads in the sand. Change is upon us and eventually we have to roll with it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for visiting, Gillian. Good point. To stand back and observe was never more important, since today’s media floods us with the twists and turns of lies and truths from around the world.
Difficult to hear and contemplate the most vital question through the noise, by enough people, including those who suffer, and are most frustrated,
‘What is denied, and by whom?’
Basically addressing the confused collective mind … ‘What ails thee?’
LikeLike
I am not pretending to know all the answers but it feels to me as if the uncertainty of everything is what might be ailing a lot of people. This year has thrown so much at everyone in many different ways.
LikeLiked by 1 person