The Biggest Lessons

Late August or early September means back to school in many countries. Students have the opportunity to learn lessons that will stick with them through their lives. Lessons can also be learnt by students of life, at any age. This may be a good time of year to reflect on lessons you’ve learned in the past year. Even if we don’t think about it explicitly, as writers, we bring our significant life lessons to our writing in the form of stories, themes, journeys, etc.

One lesson that we nearly always learn, though sometimes in our later years, is that life is fleeting and fragile. Write a story about that! This lesson was discussed by author and teacher Cheryl Strayed in an interview with author and expatriate Pico Iyer. Strayed conducted a series of author interviews, called “Sugar Calling“, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a time when a lot of us were at home and had a whole lot of time to think about life lessons we’ve learned. Iyer talked about the time – years earlier – that his home, with all his belongings and his handwritten manuscripts, was destroyed in a wildfire. Iyer drew from this terrible tragedy the lesson that life is fragile and fleeting. While different individuals could have a great variety of lessons they draw from such an awful event, Iyer’s was: while you’ve got this life, do what you can with it. He changed the way he lived.

Think about the most important lessons of your life. Was it:

• the hardest thing you ever had to do

• the deepest, most painful wound you experienced

• a time you lost everything

A final gem from Pico Iyer is: “We have no power over things, but we have power over how we respond.”

Write a fictional story or one from your own life. Set up the context and reveal the life lesson. Then write about the aftermath and what you or your character did as a result.