‘I do not know how to write my
future history. So much comes out which is dark. So much of what would be good
seems too much like fantasy.’
So, for my friend, and for you, who may be
curious to understand the way of the word, some observations; not instructions,
we all find our own path, but thoughts for thinking.
Futuristory is not future fantasy – friend understands
this well enough. Fantasy is the dreaming, the wishing, the often vain hope of
an abstract happy ongoing produced by some nameless force majeure, a deus ex machina
– fate, destiny, otherness. There is a tendency in many of us to escape from
the frustrations of now by imagining a future where such problems as we have
now – normally money, relationships, self-esteem – are overcome by a stroke of
fortune, an unclear but defining event which sweeps all before it to leave us
somehow whole after the event.
Future fantasy is not a realism, it is a way of
conscious dreaming, to see, perhaps a little hazily, perhaps with some clarity,
another way of being which is not this way of being. What distinguishes it from
Futuristory is that the mechanism is not self-delivered but gifted. When we try
to write our future as we might become, we are seeking to make concrete, to build
in a realistic way, a timeline which is grounded in the achievable, the
possible, the self- made, the intentional.
One of the reasons to make the future into a
narrative is that by doing so we should be analysing what steps we have to take
to achieve this end, this future moment. In other words, the telling of the
story provides a map, a satnav into the desired place. So the desired place is
a real place, a real option in our lives, which depends on us taking certain
actions, making decisions, about ourselves and our lives.
Imagine you have gone to a fortune teller. What
do they tell you? They give you a narrative of possibility which, if they are
observant and clever, is grounded on an agreed back-story which you have provided
in answer to semi-abstract questions. This narrative deals not just with your
hopes and fears, but the shared hopes and fears of many of us who are living in
this sort of place, at this time. Your willingness to accept their narrative
will depend on many things, not least your capacity for superstition, but in
the end, it is in part a compact between the teller and the told about the
possible.
When you write a Futuristory, the back-story is
already written; your past is there, has a place, and that place is then and
gone. This can have an effect on your imagining of the future, especially the
fear of darkness which comes from our past losses, disappointments, failures.
And this takes us to the next distinction of the narrative of the future;
though it can contain darkness and fear and realistic negative feelings and
reactions, the events, actions, situations, are by definition and in conclusion
always positive; they are about the realisably good outcomes to which we
aspire.
So, if you choose, or wish, to write an episode
of your Futuristory and present it for us, remember you are making something
positive which can become real, and craft your thoughts with care. It is
surprising how much is possible when we really make a decision to act instead
of simply dream.
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