Stories are a gateway to change
A passage from
The end of all wars
Planet one
The roots of war
For some weeks now, we had been inventing stories which followed new narratives. We had heroes who didn’t lean on superpowers or super weapons but on their cunning to solve conflicts without resorting to violence. We had stories of partners who were tired of divides and dissected where the divides came from and how to resolve them. We had families who were entangled in a mess of jealousy and competition until one of them suggested to disentangle the mess. We had stories about business people whose work ridiculed the ideas of profiteering and exploitation. We had stories about architects who composed communities embedded in an ecosystem. We had stories of nations who were caught in damaging narratives until a group of people set out to explore new perspectives. We had whole planets who faced threats and found ways to de-escalate the situations and reshape life on their planet. And we had stories for our child where we brought nature’s ingenuity to life.
Not all of our stories were good, but the writer among us encouraged us to keep trying and to oil the wheels of our imagination.
‘Even if your story isn’t a masterpiece,’ they said, ‘it might contribute to one of the other stories or inspire new thoughts. We all know that thoughts have a funny way of turning up in the most unlikely places.’
© Charlie Alice Raya, The end of all wars, planet one, the roots of war, 2024