That is beautiful. And it inspires me to maybe get around to actually writing that fan letter to Susan Cooper, who is one of the few authors LEFT who has inspired me and given me hope and strength throughout childhood and even adulthood, but who hasn't already died.

Carl and I got into a wildly metaphysical discussion a few weeks ago, inspired by Madeleine L'Engle, about the difference between reality and truth (well, it wasn't so much a discussion as it was me spouting all kinds of tumbled thoughts and he trying to keep up) - how, like she said, things don't always have to be factual in order to be true, and something can be completely not-real and still be truer than the realest thing in the universe.

Hope, beauty, courage. What a gift the best writers have given to this world.