About Conflict

Drama.

I was watching the 3rd season of True Blood last night. For those of you who don't know, the series is based on Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books. The storyline gets complicated. She messes with the characters and makes me want to slap a few of them for being dimwitted.

I returned to work today after a fun 4-day weekend and was greeted with problems galore which only I could fix. By the time I wasted two hours I was ready to run out of here screaming and waving my arms like a mad woman.

All this made me think of conflict.

I took a moment to remind myself who I am.

Neale (best writer in the world, person who changed my life) explains that we're in the relative realm. We constantly battle opposing forces. There's an up and a down, a tall and a short, a fat and a thin, etc. That's just the way it works here. When we call positive to ourselves we're actually also calling the negative with it because one can not be experienced without the other. He's not making it up. It's quantum physics, metaphysics, and I love it.

I thought about what I called to myself today, things like success, peace, smooth-flowing work, exquisite writing. Then I thanked God for today and everything I had invited into my life because the fact that everything started out awful just means my best creation is underway.

Generally people hate drama in their lives, except for those that live for it. We like it when everything is smooth sailing, no worries. We constantly complain about the price of gas, the economy, jobs, society. It's all conflict, and we hate it. Yet it amazes me that if we were to read a book with no conflict whatsoever, it would be considered crap, boring, not fit for publishing.

Why is that? Why do we need our books to contain some sort of drama? Is it that we like to read about misery, killing, the horrible things people do? Is it that some psyco part of us rejoices in violence?

Personally, I think it's because after the rollercoaster of drama, the ending makes us feel darn good.

The fact is that no matter what type of conflict we stick in our novels, there will always be a hero, someone we can follow who will overcome those obstacles and make us proud. When the story ends and we discover that there was someone out there willing to combat all odds to set things right and stand up for his or her beliefs, we're left with a warm feeling, an appreciation of our highest self and what it truly means to be human.

Have a great Tuesday.