David Densmore on Story Club with George Saunders

Love "Custer in the Bardo" here's what happened to me last night: 5/1/25 "Its a sin to say 'things worked out' Its a venial sin to say 'for the better'" I woke at 3am with these words in my mind. I thought they had meaning so I wrote them down rather than turn over and go back to sleep. I'm not a Catholic, I didn't know the stages of sin, I thought venial was worse, (Sounds worse). Why am I even thinking these things? I learned that venial put you half-on, half-off, God's Venn diagram where as mortal put you totally outside. So after research I changed the quote. "Its a venial sin to say, things worked out Its a mortal sin to say, for the better" Still, the next day it didn't make much sense to me. I'm one who would tend to say things turned out ok, even for the better. What could be wrong with that? How could that put me outside of God for God's sake? Lao Tsu says: in whatever you do when you follow the Way be one with the Way when you succeed be one with success when you fail be one with failure be one with success for the Way succeeds too be one with failure for the Way fails too I can't be one only with success. To skip over the damage done, the lives changed, the hurt compounded upon those creatures for whom it didn't work out is to leave the Way, is to sin, is to put yourself outside of God's Venn diagram. That's how I think now of the random words I wrote down at 3am. Then I turned over and went back to sleep.