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I wrote something for the writing contest today. I wrote it on a spur of the moment. I was suddenly inspired with a story, and I sat down to compose it, and it seemed finished in no time. Well, I guess that is a bit of a lie. I was interrupted the evening I started to write it and didn't finish it until the next morning, but each time I sat at my computer the words flowed out of me like water, steadily spreading across the page. The crisp white page soaked them up quite nicely. The interesting thing is, the contest is about Christian writing, and I certainly wrote from a Christian perspective. It is quite obvious. I wonder if that will be a downfall for me. It seems nowadays the trend is to have less obvious connections: analogies that are difficult to see when viewed from the surface. Sometimes I understand this; I really enjoy trying to dive into works of literature and discover the hidden messages. But at the same time, most people don't like diving into a sea of words to see what treasures may be uncovered, only to find that one's lungs can only hold so much air. Then, under the weight of the words, it is a struggle to come up for breath. Unwilling to search: what they see is what they read is what they get. There is something to be said for obvious connections, so that people get the point on the first pass, and do not mistake what they are reading.

That being said, I would venture to say that many people are affected by unobvious connections whether they know it or not. Nearly everyone who reads a fantasy knows that it is not real and could never happen, but many, as they read it, have a secret hope that it really could happen, or find some glimmer of reality in it. Perhaps that is because much fantasy is teeming with underlying themes, theories, and analogies to real life. There is a yearning in the reader for something in life that is like what is in the story. Only the something in life is real, and the story is only a metaphor.

Anyway, back to the point. Sometimes clear connections are important, too. There are a good number of people in this world who don't like to beat around the bush. They want it plain and simple. We are real, physical beings, and we like things to be seen and touched. That includes the reality of words. In many of the world religions, we use physical actions and verbal prayers that are signs of the spiritual, analogies of the supernatural. These analogies are very real and very direct, such as breaking bread or calling upon the Holy Spirit. Why can't the analogies of our literature do the same? I suppose we need a little bit of both. We need the direct messages to catch our attention, to remind us to keep on the lookout; but we also need the hidden messages to call us deeper, to lure us into the depths of language, where life lessons are trapped in the ocean. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why literature is so important in life.