How was it for you?

I wasn’t stranded this week, so I am counting myself one of the lucky ones.

That said, for seven days or so, we found ourselves almost without exception in the shadow of a most unexpected cloud.  We suspended our ordinary lives, looked up at the clear blue skies, and wondered quite how this invisible ash could hold us to ransom with such disregard to our best-made plans.

At times, as this ancient volcano continued to impress us as a true ‘force of nature’, there was an apocalyptic flavor to the whole episode. 

What was remarkable, however, was how suddenly everyone had a story. 

It’s obvious, I guess, because that is precisely how we humans have always made sense of these ‘disruptions’ (or eruptions) to life as we know it.  And as Michael Margolis reminds us, the most popular story that we have told throughout human history is all to do with the hero’s long walk home.[i]

Or, if you prefer, many of us found ourselves playing a lead or supporting role in John Hugh’s 1987 film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, in which two unlikely ‘heroes’ struggle to make their way home in time for Thanksgiving.

I don’t think it was coincidence that this was screened on British TV each night this week.

In fact, these stories were everywhere; tales of people making their way across entire continents, taking the most unlikely of routes, over-coming challenges, making new friends or sleeping rough in airports and train stations.

So, not surprisingly, there’s already a blog, Ash Cloud Tales, dedicated to ‘volcanic imagination’.  There’s talk of a magazine - by stranded passengers for stranded passengers - specifically targeted at this niche market.  Its working title: Grounded

And not to be outdone, Conspiracists have already come up with a theory that this is linked to NASA hiding a damaged UFO.  

What would we do without these conspiracy theory-makers, who just love to add a little spice to the stories we ordinarily find ourselves caught up in?

But what’s my point here?  Simply, that this temporary interruption to our ordinary, utterly predicable, lives gave millions of people the chance this week to become the hero in the story – overcoming all the odds and making the long journey back home.

And for those of us who were lucky enough not to be stranded, we’ve simply found ourselves staring up at the impossibly clear skies and wondering what on earth was going on up there.   

Five miles up the hush and shush of ash
Yet the sky is as clean as a white slate
I could write my childhood there.[ii]

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[i] Michael Margolis (2009). Believe Me: A storytelling manifesto for change-makers and innovators.  New York: Get Storied Press. 

[ii] Carol Ann-Duffy, Britain’s poet laureate.