Narrative Imperative

There are some who think life has patterns. And everyday observations tend to substantiate this: things happen over and over again (almost) the same every time. There are many theories as to why this happens in life.

For example, there are those who firmly believe Murphy's Laws are an integral part of the universe: that when things can go wrong, they will. Spin me back to 1992, and I would whole-heartedly agree. Now, after observing a couple of things that have actually gone right, I don't believe that's how the universe works (most times anyways).

Then there are those who think - for whatever reason, from religion to physical causality - that everything that occurs is predestined. From the big-bang/six-day origin to the big-crunch/apocalypse, nothing is left to chance and that every occurrence can be predicted given enough divine/sub-atomic knowledge. I'm disinclined to believe this, but keep an open mind (from a science end, not a gospel end).

Still others believe in Karma: the idea that what good or evil you do in the universe, the universe delivers right back at ya. While this is a feel-good philosophy followed by some genuinely nice people, that theory does not, in the least, match my experiences.

For me, my causality viewpoint is Narrative Imperative. I actually couldn't find a link that describes it all that well, but basically it's like this: human behavior and experience follows common patterns (narrative) almost without fail (imperative). Ever hear someone say there are no new stories, that they all have been written and anything "new" is just rehashing old plots? That's the way the human mind works. Everyone knows that you don't go back into the house where the crazy, chainsaw wielding maniac is, but how many movies does this occur in? The human species seems programmed (genetically and by their society) to expect certain patterns of behavior.

So in my life, these patterns range from the mundane to the profound. For example, I know that when I park my car beside a truck with monster truck tires, I'm going to get a ding in my door. That's a pretty common one. A more obscure one is that when I start falling for a girl, there's a fifty-fifty chance that, over the course of a weekend, they'll meet someone, fall madly and passionately in love, and want to be with only with him. This is discovered when she tells me all about it. All about it. Every. Intimate. Detail. And then says it's great to have a friend she can tell this to.

No it hasn't happened lately, just saying.

So you get the idea.

The other part of the narrative imperative doesn't relate to patterns but rather is a way seeing how unexpected events occur. Human beings (well, some human beings) plan how things are supposed to go. Sometimes they go as planned, sometimes they... don't.

Which brings us back to me.

If you take a look at the "stories" in my life: my life from birth to today, my time with a person or at a job, or even the little events that make up the day, it seems like in many cases, there are "plot twists".

Some Examples:

I need to get alot of work done and I get strep throat. Once again, I must race against the clock to get things done, despite complications, to get to that happy ending.

I go to pick up my dry cleaning, which is basically all my work clothes, and the proprietor says they were stolen. He'll refund the money if I replace them (12 shirts, 3 pants) but in the meantime I'm down to tier 3 clothes.

I'm dressed in a ridiculous outfit to go to a party and get pulled over by the police not once, but twice.

When I applied to architecture school, I was first on the waiting list. While getting some courses to cover some bases, I got drunk for year and flunked out. While trying to get into Journalism school, I got my English degree. When I got a decent job out of school, I got laid off 3 months later. When my two businesses started to pick up, the cultural and political climates changed 180 degrees, leaving me homeless.

This kind of stuff happens to everyone (almost everyone). But to me, sometimes it seems I'm character in a story, and these things just come out of some cosmic author's word processor. Plot twists, then, in a what is normally a pretty straight life.

Not sure if it's good or bad (sometimes it's both). All I know is that when the last chapter ends, my name is in the Author's acknowledgements.

Some royalties would be nice too.