More from Portland

By the way, my mom served elk for dinner. Are my peeps foodies, or what?

I promised to come back to Oregonian Donald Miller of Blue Like Jazz, so here goes.

He reminded us that story does something in our brains that proposition can't do. And our lives are stories in which God hands us the pen. He provides the setting* and the other characters, and He gives us "self" as protagonist. Then he tells us, "Make it good." The goal is that at the end, God can say, "Well done. Good story." That's the climactic scene--when we stand before the Almighty and hear "well done."

So how do we get there? We write the journey so He can say, "I like it. I like your story." It's not enough for that character to want to pay off his car and accomplish that goal in the end. The final scene can't be the character driving away in a debt-free car. That's not a big enough goal. Yet that's often the sort of goal we set when we sit down and write "What I want to accomplish this year." So we need to set loftier goals that make a difference in the grand scheme.

Now, the Audience has to want the character to succeed, and the character of the protagonist matters. There's a fine line between hero and villain. The hero can't think of him- or herself as better than others. (Nobody wants a totally smug character to succeed.)

He reminded us that when we walk out of bad movies, we don't say, "Movies stink." We say, "That movie stunk." And in the same way, when people say, "Life is meaningless," the reality is, maybe that person's life is meaningless. But that doesn't make life meaningless.

Our choices have a lot to do with making our story meaningful. And the more obstacles we face, often the more satisfying the ending.

*P.S. Speaking of setting--In today's chapter of my life, I'm looking out on gold-gilded clouds breaking over the Columbia River. And I have Mt. St. Helens in view. Pity, eh?