I haven’t spoken up yet. I’ve been busy keeping up with posts and just enjoying the massive relief each day that maybe, just maybe, even if some of the world around me is not to be trusted, maybe it’s not the majority—or even the vocal minority. The relief has been knee-buckling. I no longer feel I’m about to die.
And while I don’t see the benefit in me endorsing a candidate—I’m your average American person without any special power or position—I didn’t want to go any longer without making it clear on where I stand, particularly in relation to this publication.
Story— narrative—tracks who we are and where we’ve been. It is the documentation of all around us, filtered through a writer’s perspective, analyzed through our thought processes, and presented in what we hope is an engaging fashion. It is fiction; it is truth, it is both. And to me, everything can be umbrella’d under Story.
This substack explores writing and how to do it. It features stories of my own: fiction that I’ve written and essays on things I’ve thought about. That includes politics.
So you will find I write notes lifting up stories by others that I think are part of the American story or the planet’s story, occasionally even the story of the universe. I will express my thoughts on the state of the world around me, and I am unabashedly in favor of recognizing and honoring the diversity of this world as it was created—full of people who are different from one another but who are expected to live amongst each other respectfully and supportively in pursuit of decencey, honor, and justice.
If that last line doesn’t make it clear who I am, you haven’t been paying close attention.
Traditional politcal parties in America disagreed on how to put policies into action, how to get things done. Now, they no longer agree on—well, much of anything. But at the core, right now, we have a group that wants to rule the rest of us, rather than represent all of us. That kind of ‘governing’ never works out, especially not for the majority of us who simply want to succeed at living our own lives. Things work better when we have the freedom to make choices, not have our religious beliefs or our personal decisions dictated to us. Our founding fathers believed that—they came here to be free of a monarch who only allowed one religion to be exercised. Even God saw fit to give his creation free will.
So, yes, I support those who stand behind keeping the rights we have established for ourselves over the years, including some that have recently been overturned by a non-supportive court. Rights like those do not force you to do something you don’t want to do, they make it possible for you to have the opportunity to do what you decide is right. They restrain abuse of power by those who could encourage activity harmful to others. They preserve for us the means to keep our democracy on track—and to afford the same opportunities for abundant life to everyone. I support all of that and the people who want to keep it that way.
As to “Do You Know Where YOUR Story Is?”, here is how my publication bills itself:
… If you write, or you like to talk about writing, or you just like reading for fun, you can join us as we explore Story. There will be essays and stories by myself and other contributors, interviews and other things creative. There will be an ongoing conversation about critiques and writers groups, as well as conversation about Story itself - where it comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there.
And since I believe Story is everywhere, you never know what I’ll write about—until you read it.