The End.

Of course anytime we end our stories with this magical invocation, we're merely drawing attention to the fictional nature of our narrative again.

There is never a "The End." At least not yet. We're all working toward them and hoping about them (endings), but the artificial closure that gives a sense of poetic unity and wholeness to the narrative that we're completing is wholly a device of the human imagination. It measures out our main character's growth as being complete enough. It measures out the distance travelled as being a sufficient world.

The End.

So it's with the celebration of a storyteller who's loved telling this story, and the ambivalence of an observer / character who hopes that our own worlds and our own characters will not be completely frozen or captured or stunted in this telling, that I bid adieu to the Back Burner.

The most fufilling part of the storytelling by far has been your generous listening and kind responses. Your audience-ness has made me a better person as well as a better teller. Thanks.

Go in....

peace~