Our Stories

"These are our stories. They tell us who we are." Lieutenant Whorf

I have no stories that tell me who I am.

I used to have them when I was a child, but we have put away the things of children. I have never felt so estranged from the country of my birth as I have for the past 3 years. Now we hope that it will begin to mend. I do not think we will always agree. I do not think that one bit. And we will still act like swine to each other.

But I hope the strange gods have been put away; the dark gods of passion akin to madness that speak in whispers and goad men on to acts of unjust war. Remember I said once that I considered that the United States and the Soviet Union together had effected one of the greatest moral victories in the history of mankind: the avoidance of Nuclear War. Men are still capable of great things.

I have heard it said that modern man has no myths; that he needs myths - stories - to help him understand his place in the universe. We do have stories that tell us what we are. We have the stories of Jesus, the stories of Muhammad, the stories of Moses, the stories of the Buddha... Each of these stories says it will tell us what we are and what we may become.

We have all the myths and stories we need. We choose to ignore them.

One of the biggest selling novels has been the Left Behind series. I have said that I consider stories of death and destruction - even those wrapped in biblical parchments - to be diseased myths of a age of man that is sick unto death and fascinated by the image of its own destruction; an age of mankind so self-centered that it must grasp for everything, even disaster. The Sermon on the Mount is a story that tells us who we are and what we should be and what we may become.