Character Study

Reality is not a story

But we read it, and write about it, and act and think and speak as if

It were, and that is pure folly as metaphysics

But it is a skeleton key for the treasury of what we call morality or ethics

As if there were no difference, really

Which seems rather obtuse

Discourse about morality is about good and evil

Discourse about ethics is about right and wrong

In the first case, you are trying to determine what will allow a human life to be good

In the second case, you are sorting out what it means to do the right thing as x

That is, as someone leading a particular sort of life

And being a particular sort of person in the process

A parent, a child, a spouse, an electrician, a topiary gardener, a leader

Narratives are a laboratory for both of these kinds of experiments

Almost all of the results are published

Peer review isn’t what it used to be

But we must remember that a story need not be read as didactic

That is, as telling you what to think or do or say

Whether because it will allow a human being to flourish, in the most general sense

Or because it is the right thing for a particular sort of human, being in a particular way

To do or think or say

The richest, most absorbent, most nourishing narratives

Allow you more successfully, as a human being, to sort out what it means to be one

And to be a good human, doing the right thing (generally with some panache)

For yourself

It’s the latter sort, the time and space for thought creating ones

That we need more of

Quickly