[Long random musing.]
Human beings love stories, and one of the most unsettling things about the world is that it isn't a story, doesn't make sense & doesn't have a logical plot or story arc. It is a mess of particles and emptiness and we are here and have to make the best of it.

That said, it still matters what stories we tell ourselves and others. I'm not just talking about writing fiction, though those stories definitely matter because they can make us feel, and think, and even act. I'm thinking more about the stories inside our minds.

We tell ourselves stories all the time. About who we are and who we want to be. About the world and what it is, and how it's supposed to be, and how we fit into it. (Reality, as in political and economic systems and physics for example are part of those stories, of course.)

On a personal level, we tell ourselves what our purpose is. Who we are. What's important to us. What we're striving towards. What our priorities are. This isn't always clearly labelled in our heads as "stories", but even when unspoken, I think we all have a kind of narrative.

We can buy into the stories others tell about us (parents, teachers, "society"), and sometimes they're a good fit and we live our lives inside them. But not all stories are good for us. We can't bend and shape ourselves into just anything.

Sometimes, we find a good story to tell ourselves about ourselves. It's good because it helps us cope & get up in the morning and face the non-story of the universe. It gives meaning and purpose, and holds the world together even if we know the universe has no story.

IMO, it's even better if it helps us connect in some way to the world around us and the people around us. To live for something other than just ourselves. Some people adopt the "I'm a bad person" persona, but most people want to be "good", whatever our stories define as GOOD.

Some stories are told at the society level. Religions. Political ideologies. Nationalism. Capitalism. Fascism. Communism. A lot of other isms and worldviews. Some stories try to incorporate the whole world, and they shape the world we live in as they are being told and passed on.

Think about right now, our pandemic-now. What stories do the politicians and leaders in various places tell us about how we got here and how to cope now and what comes after? What do we tell ourselves about who we are right now and what to do with our lives NOW and in future?

There is no grand plan in the universe, imo. We can make our own grand plans. We can try to tell new stories about what we can be, what the world can be, and what the future can be like. Those stories might be fiction on one level, but they will help shape us and the world.

Human beings need stories. The little stories about ourselves. The big stories about society and the world and the universe.

In this beautiful, scary, vast Cosmos that cares not a jot for humans, we can still tell stories & try to make the best of the particles and emptiness.

In conclusion: