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Jane Roper's avatar

I think a happy story works *only* if there's a little bit of chaos / messiness / misunderstanding along the way.

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Henriette Lazaridis's avatar

Right. A story can end happily, but it can't just be happy the whole time. We need the chaos en route to the happy ending.

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Sarah Lavender Smith's avatar

Congrats on your happy race! I hope that means your knee behaved and did not cause drama. Happy stories need the backdrop of change, struggle, or conflict to be satisfying. I can think of only one exception, and it works because its happiness is so exaggerated; but it’s more of a commentary than a story with the beginning, middle, and end: https://semi-rad.com/2024/01/make-2024-the-year-of-maximum-enthusiasm/

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Henriette Lazaridis's avatar

And now that I've read that piece, I have to add that frequently I would say to my husband: "We're doing it! It's happening! We did it!" While it was happening!

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Henriette Lazaridis's avatar

No drama from the knee! Just a lot of swelling, and a lot of pain on the first day. Weirdly, pain diminished over the course of the three days, so I was able to do more running on flats and downhills along with the fast-hiking of the ups. But, see, it's kind of not a satisfying story because everything went well. It was, though, an incredibly satisfying experience!

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Crystal King's avatar

So glad you are ok!!!

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Catherine Elcik's avatar

Glad you are safe and warm now!

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Henriette Lazaridis's avatar

Me too!

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