Narnia

Through a fence or on a train or falling into a painting of a ship at sea, you never know when you are going to Narnia. It is where animals talk and the great Lion himself sometimes walks. These books were read to me by my 5th grade teacher and every one of us loved them. I loved Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy and details of a place I had forgotten I had ever heard of, England. C.S. Lewis tells a fairy tale and he is a Christian writer and there are elements of Christianity but we do not know that. We only wait to hear about Aslan, the Lion and the King of Beasts.

High up on a mountain, miles above even the clouds Aslan says he can speak freely and clearly. When we return to earth things become confused and things are not as we expect to find them and we do not have a clear path to follow. When danger threatens we are to take up our swords and never forget to clean them after a battle. We are not to fear death but know that the Lion is everywhere and with us at all times. You never know when he might appear. You never know when you might be snatched from one world to another.

I think that this guy knew things that I do not. I think there is more here than imagination. It is said that this author knew the power of Christianity personally, that he had made things happen in his life with the power of God. This is not something perhaps that should be shouted at everyone from rooftops, but I still think of it and write it. What else can I do? It is this that draws me to him, these ideas that God is here now at this very moment and always. I think that God is the most creative thing and that we may not recognize his movements. As the author of creativity I think that God would act in unconventional ways, but that is me isn't it?

As someone who has read many many books I am always drawn to children's books, where it seems the most positive messages and the most creativity seem to be. As I try to write myself and I read and I grow older and hopefully wiser, it seems to me that what counts is the quality of the writing itself. I live where romance novels are sometimes labeled "trash" and yet these young writers who are honestly and truthfully writing about life (and in between the yucky old romance scenes) are really getting it, they are really writing a good book. It doesn't matter if it is a children's book, a young adult or a romance, these writers who are reaching, always reaching for the highest star do reach it, 'cause they want to, 'cause they want to write a good book. It amazes me sometimes the way things can be communicated in writing that don't seem to be in the writing itself but in some mysterious but not unknown place because I have been there before, where things pass from the author to me in some telephathic way, where there must be invisible ink and invisible words in between the lines that I don't realize that I can see. That is because words are magic.