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a tale of two cities, a wrinkle in time, baroness emma orczy, c.s. forester, charles dickens, doctor who, horatio hornblower, j.r.r. tolkien, madeleine l'engle, original stories, short stories, star wars, the lord of the rings, the scarlet pimpernel
Call this a tribute to all my favorite characters–I was thinking back on all my favorites and I noticed that my very favorite characters all tried and failed at some point, but kept on trying. Their victories were by no means constant, and their successes were not always total.
So here is my tribute to Horatio Hornblower, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Martin the Warrior, the Doctor (though this sounds much more like Eight than like Eleven), Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Charles Wallace Murray, Meg Murray, Sydney Cotton, and all my other favorite characters.
Enjoy.
They all pity me. I can tell.
I’ve got all the scars and bruises and broken bones I earned by my trouble, I skirt the edge of madness, and sometimes I seem to be invisible.
Sometimes, they ask me why I’m like this.
“It couldn’t be helped,” I say.
After all, if I told them the full truth, they wouldn’t stop to listen.
Sometimes, when you reach out to touch the stars, you fall and fall hard. Not all your leaps of faith will be successes.
Of course, since they pity me, they’d never see the truth. The truth is this: I tried. I did my best and sometimes it just wasn’t enough. Reduced to this shell of a man as I am in their eyes, they would only see the futility of the struggle. Never its nobility.
The very core of the truth, condensed and concentrated, is that I do not regret one moment.
I do not grudge one bruise, one scar; not the shattered bones or the bleeding knuckles or broken skin. If I had my live to live all over, I’d do it all again. I’d risk it all. I’d step out without knowing if I had a safety net. I’d run farther and fight harder without knowing if I’d win or not. I would seize every chance, take every risk in hope.
I have lived more fully than any of them. The path of least resistance is not one that is by any means enviable. It’s safe, certainly—but it is not satisfying. Not to me, in any case.
I would not give up one second of this. I do not regret one moment of this.
Some things are worth failing for.
The Upstairs Archives 
ERIN!!! I had work to do this week! Right in the feels…
Also thank you. I am printing this out and hanging it on my wall.
I’m sorry! I had thirty minutes before class and I had to express SOMETHING 😦
Oh, well I’m glad you liked it then 🙂
Lovely! I really like it. Good character voice, and I love the subject matter. 🙂
Thanks! 😀
Oh, I really like it! Just … ooooh. The feels.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it 😀
This is gorgeous. And it deserves more than just those three words, but I don’t know what to say, except it’s sad and lovely and oddly inspiring despite its sadness.
Thank you… I’m glad you liked it. I was kind of thinking about how Obi-Wan and Eight are most compelling at their weaker moments and then boom.
This is amazing! You captured such a bittersweet tone…. Quite inspirational.
Thank you :-3
I love this. I can’t really say anything else. I just love this.
The quote “I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night” has always been an inspiration to me. If you really think about it, it has so many meanings. True, we live in an age of darkness, but if it weren’t for that darkness we’d never know the stars (Mother Theresa, Pope St. John Paul II, and so forth) who shone out so brightly in spite of it.
(If you’re a fan of Lewis, might I also recommend Madeleine L’Engle’s books? In “A Wrinkle In Time” they describe the great artists and saints of the past as warriors in the fight for our souls, since all good artists produce material that forces us to think, strengthens us and raises our minds.)
Most definitely! I tried to read a Wrinkle in Time a while ago and it scared the dickens out of my eleven year old self. XD I’ll have to give it another go. 🙂
Definitely try it again! It’s a bit scary but well worth the read 😀