Why we write...

I have had a lot of good thoughts going on around me, and some have found at least a temporary welcome within me. So, in the spirit of hospitality, welcome to the living room where other people's thoughts hold conference with mine, and the dark, and something more than the dark.

"Is that why we write, people like me--to keep our courage up? Are novels such as mine a kind of whistling in the dark? I think so. To whistle in the dark is more than just to try to convince yourself that the dark is not all there is. It is also to remind yourself that dark is not all there is or the end of all there is because even in the dark there is hope. Even in the dark you have the power to whistle, and sometimes that seems more than just your own power, because it is powerful enough to hold the dark back. The tunes you whistle in the dark are the images you make of that hope, that power. They are the books you write."

-Frederich Buechner

Faith, he says, could be called a whistling in the dark too, of course. I will think quietly on that one for a little while. And agree.