Making sense

“In stories, there are agents and actions; there are patterns; there is direction; most of all, there is meaning.  Even when the consequences are tragic, there is a point; there is a message, a moral, a teaching.  And that is a consolation.  It is consoling to believe that our lives have a shape, a purpose and direction; that the white hats and the black hats have appropriate heads beneath them, and are borne about by bodies with the right souls inside; that there are historical entities, called events, which we can understand, periods which have cohesion and personalities all their own, causes we can espouse or oppose, forces we can employ, and so on.” — William H. Gass, “The Nature of Narrative and Its Philosophical Implications,” from Tests of Time