Day 219: The Power of Fiction

I’m rediscovering my love of short stories. Last night, I stayed up reading Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, and when I read the short story that the compilation was named for, I felt my inner dam crack and release tears I didn’t know I held.

It’s remarkable how fiction, that which is not real, possesses the ability to connect us ever more deeply to that which is real. The pretense of make-believe lowers our guard, and it’s then when the kernels of shared human experience pierce the layers of certainty we’ve built up around our life’s narratives. Every once in a while, gazing upon the mirror of imaginary characters in constructed worlds shatters the illusion of self-knowledge and reveals the limitations of our worn and weary lens, so familiar as to be rendered invisible for all but the briefest of moments.

I miss my grandma.