A reason that keeps moving

A young man in Tanta binds notebooks by hand and sells them online. The months are slow, and he has a reason.

At first the reason was the photographs. So a friend reshot them in good light, and the slow months continued. Then the reason was that people here do not value handmade things, though most of the orders that did come were from his own city. Then it was the season, then the delivery fees, then a sense that the whole market had gone quiet.

Every one of those reasons was possible. That is not the problem. The problem is that each one moved as soon as it was checked, and a new one stepped in to take its place.

That is how you tell a story from an explanation. An explanation can be wrong, and you can find out that it is wrong. A story cannot lose, because it changes shape the moment the evidence turns up.

Most of us carry a few of these about our own work. Why the launch did not take. Why the customer went elsewhere. Why the price is definitely not the issue. They are comfortable precisely because nothing can knock them down.

The real reason for his slow months exists. It might be dull. It might be that the notebooks are lovely and almost nobody knows they are there, or that the people who do find them want a different size. Finding it will take patience, and accepting it might take more.

But it is not running from him. The truth is hard to see and slow to arrive, and it stays exactly where it is while you look. When the reason slips away every time you get close, it was never the reason.