Surreal
Mark Twain said, “Truth is Stranger than Fiction.”
Right now as I watch and read the news, it strikes me that what is happening in the US isn’t strange, it’s surreal. Protests are not uncommon but the atmosphere is heavy, laden with uncertainty.
I had brunch with a friend a week ago and something she said struck a chord in me. To paraphrase, she said that since life as she knew it had been fairly trouble free if she would be fortunate to never experience World War III. Our generation didn’t experience the devastation of war. We’ve seen the civil wars in the Middle East but we never had a first hand experience of what it truly meant to be in fear of our lives.
As a writer, I observe. It is in my observation where I craft an alternative world. Sometimes, the worlds are filled with happy ever afters. Sometimes, I channel Stephen King and make them horrific. Sometimes, I do a mix of both. I do this, knowing that the characters and the worlds will remain a fantasy. I am not naive to think that horrible things don’t happen, that there are human monsters out there, but I believed that good would always triumph.
Now, I look around me and wonder whether good will prevail in the end. Would it be my idea of good or other people’s idea of good?