Wake the dead?

I got chewed out the other day for merely walking into a gas station/deli with the intent of ordering food but not calling ahead to warn them of my 'large' crowd.  I looked at our humongous assemblage consisting of a one year old, a six year old, 3 thirty-somethings, and an older couple.  One guy bought a pre-made sandwich, the kids and I weren't eating anything but snacks, leaving a grand total of 3 people who might order something from the deli.  Boy did I feel like dirt, and through no fault of my own and that was the worst part of it.  By nature I'm a people pleaser and do everything I can to make sure others are comfortable and happy, even at the cost of my own comfort and happiness.  When someone still gets mad at me though I've tried my best not to cause problems or frustration, it stings and I wonder what's wrong with me.

My favorite books and people all share one trait: kindness.  I grew up without any and still struggle with the thought that it's because I don't deserve any.  But we all do merely for the fact that we're human, wrought in the very image of the Divine, though if you are of the opinion that a monkey is indeed your uncle, that's a whole other philosophical argument I won't address here.  People are a bit harder to sort through, but books are fairly obvious.  Trashy romance novels make me ill.  Heartless adventure stories leave me cold.  Murder mysteries without a soul stay on the shelf.  I need warmth, plot, character, depth, in short, the epitome of what it is to be human, those are the books that win my heart.

Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Tolkien, L.M. Montgomery, Alcott, Victor Hugo, Walter Scott, George MacDonald...they all get it.  I don't love every book they've ever written, but their works have endured for a reason, and it isn't the torrid romance, indeed, they are full of what might be called romance, sentimentalism, pathos, but it has nothing to do with bulging muscles and ripped shirts, but rather it is an exploration of the spiritual, emotional, mental, and feeling side of what it is to be human.  Modern culture has reduced 'romance' to a mere carnal lust whereas it used to mean something quite different, indeed, while there is romantic affection and the pursuit of relationships within many of these books, it is only a thing, not the Only Thing.  There is so much more going on, something far bigger than the characters and plot, a something that makes the books real, tangible, believable.  A something that hardly makes a cameo in any modern writing.

What is that something?  It is the same thing we spend our lives pursuing.  The something that makes our mere existence a true life.  Most try to content themselves with trashy, shallow romance or some other intoxicating substitute, but they always come away empty and searching for more.  As I said before, we are each a work of Divine creativity, we are even told 'eternity has been put into our hearts,' so is it any surprise that we yearn for Him above all else, even if we know it not or mistake it for a longing for something else.  These books aren't preachy or theological or even metaphysical or spiritual but they are set in a world where such is possible, where virtue and events aren't mere happenstance, where magic and hope and meaning still happen, a world very much like the one we inhabit, except we choose not to see it.  Our stories and lives are as two dimensional as our worldview, we choose to box ourselves into a small, duller place because it is 'safe' and of our own design, little realizing we have trapped ourselves within our own tomb.  But the cement isn't dry yet, we can still break out and find the sun, and picking up a good book might just be your first step back towards real life!