Recently, I started reading Madeleine L'Engle's classic book Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. She starts one section in the book by saying, "We are hurt; we are lonely; and we turn to music or words, and as compensation beyond all price we are given glimpses of the world on the other side of time and space."
We all know this to be true. Some admit it, some don't. But I'm routinely reminded that when people are hurt or lonely, they are looking for words of consolation that can often be found in the arts. Every day people find this blog by googling "substitute people" (which is a term that originated in the movie Elizabethtown and I've written several posts about it) presumably because they feel like a substitute person and they don't want to anymore.
I get that. In fact, it's one of the reasons I watch movies and read books too. I want the full range of life experience that others have lived and I want the truth. I don't want the glossed over version that most of us dish out in real life. I want to hear and read about triumph as well as pain because triumph often means little if it doesn't cost anything.
