Check Out ‘Chekhov’s Gun’ Beyond The Page

Every one thing
plays its part
in everything.

— Shilashanti

As paraphrased from Anton Chekhov,
‘If you say in the first chapter
that there is a rifle hanging on the wall,
in the second or third chapter
it absolutely must go off.’

Thus formed ‘Chekhov’s gun’,
the narrative ‘rule’ that every element written
should be necessary, with a meaningful payoff later,
lest it wastes the writer and reader’s time,
as an excessive detail.

Of course, the gun can stand for anything,
physical or mental, present or absent,
even a thought, a feeling,
words spoken and actions done,
and even those not spoken and not done.

Every part is purposeful and thus crucial,
with essence before existence,
whether it meets its potential fully,
fails fully, or falls in between,
with or without regrets.

Although a crisp writing principle,
this is also a sharp living principle,
for every person, matter and thing we karmically encounter,
on and off the page and stage, in everyday life,
has some significance to be discovered.

Nothing is here or not here by chance,
nothing is a mere distraction, to be forgotten,
anything means something, to be mindful of,
to not learn nothing from, to walk away from,
to not be taken for granted, as if not there at all.