Conviction in Fiction

"A great novel is a kind of conversion experience. We come away from it changed."
-Katherine Paterson

Well meaning adults often ask teenagers in junior high and high school, "Where do you want to be in 10 years? Where do you see yourself?" For a culture that gives its young an endless multitude of choices, this is not a bad question. Prompting young people to think about what they want to do in life and how to prepare for it is wise. But the question starts to lose meaning once you have set the course of your life. If you're 30, and you ask yourself where you would like to see yourself or what you would like to be doing in 10 years, the answer may be something pretty similar to what I am doing right now.We work our jobs, we build our relationships with family and friends. There should come a saturation point with salary and material possessions where hopefully we no longer dream of getting more and more. No matter what our age or where we are in life, perhaps a better question to begin asking ourselves would be, What kind of person do I want to be in 10 years?

I believe that reading stories can be the kind of transformative experience that makes us ask the important questions. Every once in a while, I have read a book that prompts me to stop and think about the person I am and the person I need to become. Recently reading The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry was one of those transformative experiences.

His writing is beautiful, not on it's shimmering surface, but in the simplicity of the truth it illuminates. The stories he tells are often short on plot and long on character, giving lie to the idea that for a life to be interesting, it must be filled with intrigue and explosions, car chases and serial murderers. Old Jack is an old farmer, fully anchored in his community of family and neighbors, passing his old age lost in memories of his past. It's a rare and skillful storyteller who can compel us to look to our own hearts and character while engaging us deeply in the life of someone else. Old Jack's past and the mistakes he made brings to mind our future, our chance to live life to the fullest.I want to be the kind of person who buys less because I want less, satisfied with what I have. I want to be the kind of person who remains cheerful and flexible when my plans are thwarted, the kind of person who keeps a small leaf of hope alive when things go horribly wrong. I would like to find a way to serve God that honors the life of Christ. The kind of person who continually asks, What is the best way to live my life? What is right and how can I do it? How can I be happy as well as kind and good? How do I tell my story and the stories around me that need to be told?

The Mad Farmer tells us to "ask the questions that have no answers." Even if we never come to conclusive answers, I believe that there is worth in wrestling with the right questions, and I'm thankful for books that bring those questions before me with such grace and power.

by Kristen McCarty (Relevant Magazine)

Like the author of this article, I believe that good stories make us ask good questions, they invoke feeling and thought and emotion that might not otherwise have found their way into our day, they make us feel and think and grow, and through the reading of them we learn something about life and about ourselves that we didn't know before. Perhaps that's a tall order but I think it's possible. Obviously, I am an avid reader. I love to read a wide variety of things and am convinced that certain books are placed in my hands at certain times for a certain purpose. Do you ever have that feeling? You pick up a boreadd start to readc it buweightarrieexcitementht, no excitment and so you put it down, only to pick it up a month later and find that you are totally enthralled in what's between it's covers. Okay, maybe that's just me. I find that I learn in a whole new way when I'm reading. My challenge to myself several years ago while still on staff at Christian Publications was to read one book every two weeks, alternating between fiction and non-fiction. Recently, I've upped the anti a bit broadened my horizons, reading Christian and non-Christian work, classics, Oprah recommended pieces, Best seller list winners and award winners, even Harry Potter. At worst, you learn something about how the author thinks but more often than not, you get new glimpses into life, into culture, into yourself and, iwillingre really willng to look, to see how it all fits together.