Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.
It’s official: I’ve come off of Cloud 9 to write this post. My Super Bowl weekend was awesome like Peyton! Clearly, I’m enamored by storybook endings. (Aren’t we all?) But I’m also willing to dwell in reality, so I’ll read the tough but poignant stuff. I have a friend who doesn’t like to read about characters that make poor choices. I might have been scratching my head when she aired those words because we can learn from others’ poor choices, can’t we? Books are teachers. They’re advocators. They’re illuminators.
My eyes were opened to the devastating history of war-torn Afghanistan when I read The Kite Runner. Amir, the son of a wealthy Kabal merchant, develops an unlikely friendship with Hassan, the son of his father’s servant. Their friendship soars as high as the kites they sail in a local kite-flying tournament. Sadly, in a tenuous moment, Amir betrays his friend. Betrayal haunts him indefinitely. But the kite runner learns for himself (and reminds his readers) that wrongs can be righted. And good can ultimately outmatch evil.
This moving story teaches me much about redemption—that reclamation is possible if we doggedly chase after it. Hope runs through this beautiful novel that will make you weep at times, and will make you rejoice at other times. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll even find a storybook ending.