You know that little rush of pleasure you feel when you catch someone doing the right thing--going out of his or her way to be kind when he or she does not have to--doing something only because it is the right thing?

I've read that fiction is so powerful because it can be more real than reality. Art can demonstrate/ remind us of how things should be. If I ever have the opportunity to teach at a writers' conference, this would be one of the topics I would love to discuss. Art is so powerful. Artists have such great responsibility.

Right now, I'm reading back over Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. The main character, Rand, has three love interests. While I am in Jordan's storyworld, I actually want Rand to end up happily ever after with all three. At the same time! How in the world could I want that?!!!

The power of story.

I have identified with the characters. I want what they want. And therein lies the danger.

We've all cheered when the good guys got what they wanted--when the bad guys got what was coming to them. The danger lies in what writers make the reader want to happen.

I don't have time to discuss the rise of anti-heroes and subjectivism today, but today I'm grateful for the reminder that there is objective good--that people do (cooperating with grace) rise to what God created us to be--and the reminder that I am called to glamorize that in my writing, or to at least make the dissonance between what-is and what-should-be so uncomfortable that readers long for what-should-be. May I always remember that.