Narvi and Thor come to America


	Alan Bodnar, Ph.D. is the Co-Director of Psychology Training at Westborough State Hospital, Mass. and a consultant in the field of leadership development.

By Alan Bodnar, Ph.D.

It all began when Thor couldn't get the Volvo started and Narvi burst into tears. She couldn't take it anymore and now, on top of everything else, it looked as if she was about to lose the simple pleasure of a latte in the town café because it was just too cold for anything to move. Why can't we just go back to the way things used to be, Narvi cried out in desperation.

Why not indeed? And how did things used to be anyway? These and other questions ran through the minds of the seven people gathered around the table in the hospital's creative writing group. Three of us were staff members and four were patients, but in this room once a week, we are all writers trying to bring fictional characters a step closer to the solution of their everyday problems. It is surprising how much a group of motivated individuals can develop a story in the short space of a 45-minute group. We write for 25 minutes and then take turns reading our stories out loud to the group for the remaining 20 minutes. There is time for comment, brief discussion and plenty of laughs as we shamelessly manipulate the destinies of characters like Thor and Narvi who, on this particular day, are the creations of one of the group's co-leaders.

Everyone is invited to try their hand at creating story stems. The only requirement is to include one or more vividly described characters in a particular setting facing a specific challenge.

Today with seven participants in the group, we emerge with seven very different stories. No two people ever write the same story just as no two people ever make the same adaptations even to similar life challenges. A balky car battery in rural Iceland, chronic illness, schizophrenia, substance abuse, the finer points of applying for a job after a long, enforced absence from the workforce - all are problems to be solved and, as such, lend themselves to rational analysis and systematic action. Yet how many of us are always rational and systematic and how many of us would want to be, even if we could?

Creatures of both thought and feeling, we live lives and create characters in which rational and demonic forces contend for the right to control our destinies. The outcome is determined not by the winner, for the winner is rarely certain, but by the struggle itself.

Who are Narvi and Thor? To one writer they are brother and sister, abandoned by their parents, facing the unrelenting cold of a Nordic winter and clinging only to each other as they wait for help that never comes. To another, they are the poor and oppressed citizens of a flawed government who are about to be rescued by a new, enlightened and compassionate regime. Some see the pair as a recently married couple either pulling together to meet life's challenges or, more often, arguing and blaming one another for their predicament. Some portray Thor as the rational problem solver bringing a more passive Narvi along for the ride. For others, both members of the couple have their own clear ideas about how to improve their situation and the first question is whose plan of action will prevail.

How do Narvi and Thor meet the challenges before them? In one story, they emigrate to North America where Thor finds a well-paying job as an ice-road trucker and Narvi stays home to raise the couple's children. Another writer's Thor is a dentist who finally makes a go of it in the hinterland after losing his once-thriving practice in the city after a prolonged illness. Sometimes, a little progress goes a long way, as when one member of the group's characters break through an impasse in their communication with a smile of apology and a cup of tea. We never find out how this pair plans to get on with their lives but we can be fairly sure they will be doing it together. Not all of our group's Thors and Narvis are fortunate enough to find even a temporary solution to their troubles and some do not survive at all.

Thor and Narvi have much to teach their authors about facing life's challenges, as do all of the characters that spring to life every week in our group. We learn that there are many different ways to view a situation and choices to make in developing a plot or living a life. Every choice has its own consequences and some choices are better than others. We do not judge each other as writers or as human beings by the choices our characters make for, in the end, we do not so much live in them as use them to explore alternative ways of being or acting. Sigmund Freud described thought as "experimental action" and what is writing, if not thinking on paper? Even when our Thors and Narvis fail or fall short of their expectations, we may be learning what not to do as we draw hope from the more positive outcomes of other storylines. Last week, the fictional Narvi and Thor were desperate to change their lives in Iceland, so we brought them to America to change ours.

Narvi and Thor come to America (March 2009 Issue)

By Alan Bodnar, Ph.D.

Narvi and Thor come to America
(March 2009 Issue)