I hereby bear witness that you are, indeed, and have been for many years, a great storyteller.

That said, as a lesser storyteller, I feel a little like the just competent cook being told by the chef that cooking a good roux is easy: after all, it's just flour and fat. And after I ruin eight attempts with two moderate successes, I realize that it's not easy or obvious, and that for me, the "art" is non-reducible or repeatable and unfortunately dependent on luck.

This is not to fault you. I'm writing with a grin. I do the same thing with my Latin students. I mean, Latin is easy, I say, and here on my three basic rules for translation. It's all so obvious.

Great piece, brother. Look forward to carrying on the discussion over a beer this week.