Wednesday, May 4, 2011

On Stories, Origins, Disagreement, God, and Other Things

The following was written in real time on Twitter.

The sculptor Auguste Rodin left masses of rough, untouched stone intact on his finely carved sculptures -- to remind us where it came from.
Will Conley

To agree is beside the point. Just to be is the point.
Will Conley

We can meet on the mountain -- the greater substance from which our lives spring -- and compare what we made from it.
Will Conley

We are each given a stone from the same mountain. We each chisel something different. We sometimes mistake our sculptures for the mountain.
Will Conley

Stories within stories. Facts bending like wheat in the winds of imagination. Consciousness was here first.
Will Conley

God is about unity. That's all he was ever for. He is just as real as any of your imaginings.
Will Conley

When the rain comes down, it touches the whole town. That is the story we all inhabit, and it belongs to a being greater than ourselves.
Will Conley

Those who allow others to have their stories, differ though they might, are brave.
Will Conley

When we demand that others think the way we do, it is like trying to force others into our homes with us.
Will Conley

When we violently disagree with each other's stories, our violence is derived from the terror of being alone in our private stories.
Will Conley

Some of our stories are similar. When we recognize that, we cling to each other, craving familiarity and the end of loneliness.
Will Conley

A life can go through many stages, each beginning and ending with a spectacular coup against the ego, taking place where cameras cannot go.
Will Conley

To change your mind is a great adventure. You will struggle, bleed, fail and try again. To change your mind is to die and be reborn.
Will Conley

When our stories fail us, we grieve. When we, in such uncommon cases, expatriate to new stories, we suffer.
Will Conley

There is nothing wrong with stories, just as there is nothing wrong with a rose in a windstorm. We choose destruction over loss of identity.
Will Conley

We may discuss alternate stories with civil tongues, but when the shit hits the fan, we revert to our fondest stories, facts be damned.
Will Conley

Our stories are more important to us than mere facts. We readily bend or replace facts that do not serve our stories. All of us do this.
Will Conley

Our veins are filled with stories. We breathe and eat stories. When someone threatens to supplant our stories with new stories, we resist.
44 minutes ago