Chapter 0
Sometimes, to survive the story you are in, you must change the story.
This is not a simple thing to do. Stories are older than all of us; “story” is another word for “God.” To be caught in a story is to be caught in a wheel that has been propelling itself on thousands of years worth of momentum.
Here is the beginning, here is the middle, here is the end, and here is the part you must play in this endlessly spinning wheel.
Sometimes you are stuck in a story that isn’t even your own.
Sometimes, if you don’t change the story you’re living in, it will kill you.
* * *
We’ve been telling this story for a long, long time.
It is ancient and undying, but it is also malleable.
Heat it in a forge, and you can shape it into a dagger—or, you can shape it into a horseshoe.
It’s still the same metal, but we make it mean something different.
Listen: there are a hundred versions of this story.
Let’s tell one that means something different.
* * *
So be it then. If you will not have someone else tell your story, figure it out on your own.