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Failed Contracts With Life
By Denis Ledoux
This is material I cover in a writing tele-class. It is about the terrible disappointment that inevitably comes from making contracts with life. All of us at some time or other have made such a contract with life--in fact, we make them over and over again until we finally grow up.
Making a contract goes like this: "if I do this or that (usually a version of 'good boy or girl'), then life will give me what I want." (Usually this contract doesn't take into account what others want!)
In the concrete, we might bargain with life by studying hard and getting good grades. "If I do, then I'll land a great job and pay my student loans back quickly." Since we have not paid attention to finances, we graduate with $50,000 in debt and land a job as copy boy at a small company. "Not fair -- I studied hard!"
Another frequent contract with life is made by parents who go to church as an insurance that it will give them a great family. When the kids grow up rotten, they complain, "Unbelievable! How can they turnout this way after all the church they got."
Or, after the divorce, we become bitter and we project onto others. "If only my husband had not been so selfish!" (Meaning: if he had done what I was demanding from him as per my good-wife contract!)
My goal in this article is not to get you to stop making one-way contracts with life that are bound to go bad on you (hey, that would be great if the article achieved that result!). It is more literary than psychological in intent. Examine the lives of the people you are writing about--whether that person is you or someone else -- for evidence of a contract made with life, a contract that inevitably failed as they all must since life neither offers contracts nor honors yours with it (if the truth be told).
EXERCISE
1. Look for an aftermath in a life (a time of anger, bitterness, of being stalled).
2. What went wrong, fell apart, in the person's life in the month and year before? Write about that using details.
3. What do you think was the person's implicit contract with life (usually it is not explicit)? Clue: pay attention to all the complaints about what is not fair.
4. How did the person live out the contract with life? Use details to write about the person's life. Write about how he was a "good boy" or she a "good girl."
5. Now, write a story about this failed contract and its consequence.
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