Turn your face to the bright spots.

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I've been spending a lot of time digging up memories lately, and telling stories to Yvaine* about my childhood and early adulthood. As often happens, telling stories about my childhood has gotten me to think about how my perspective of my life has changed over the years, especially recently.

When discussing my life with others, I used to use the analogy of a dark tunnel with the light at the end. Sometimes it felt the light was the end of the tunnel, and other times it felt like the light was an oncoming train.

But I've changed my perspective a bit, and now I see my life as a tunnel with periodic doors along the way--open--to let enough light in so I can see my path. The bright spots let me see where I'm going, help me avoid the third rail, and remind me that there is a world outside of the path I'm on. They give me enough confidence to keep going until I hit the next bright spot.

Funny how perspectives can change.






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*Not her real name.

Tell all the truth but tell it slant

I like Emily Dickinson's poetry. Quite a lot, actually. And one poem that has resonated with me as a writer is "Tell all the truth (1129)".

Tell all the truth but tell it slant --
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind --

I think this poem is particularly applicable to the coffee house book (and the collection as a whole). The basis of the coffee house book is perspective. The reader learns about a particular event through various perspectives to give an overall view of the coffee house and its community.

Each character whose perspective is given in the coffee house book has his or her own truth. That truth fits into the bigger story, and is part of the truth, but it's only part of the truth. And the truth they tell is slanted based on their individual experiences and biases.

That's what happens in any story that uses first-person point of view, isn't it? The narrator tells his or her own version of events, and it's up to the reader to decide whether or not to believe the story. Every story has the potential to have an unreliable narrator, and the reader is the determining factor.

Every story is told slant, isn't it?