Stories are compensatory

There are so many things that we can’t say, because they are too painful. We hope that the things we can say will soothe the rest, or appease it somehow. Stories are compensatory. The world is unfair, unjust, unknowable, and out of control. When we tell a story, we exercise control, but in such a way as to leave a gap, an opening. It is a version, but never the final one. Perhaps we hope that the silence will be heard by someone else and that the story can continue and be retold.