In my freshman year of college, I remember convincing an English professor that writing an essay while researching and citing references the proper way eats into our creative flows.

That really happened.

And she really did relent.

I couldn’t believe I was successful. One classmate later told me that he was inspired.

I was just trying to get out of more work, but I do remember the story I wrote, and that could have been a turning point in my writing journey.

All this to say… all of that citing and research does eat into creative flow.

That’s how I feel about journalism, although it absolutely has its place in the world. My itch for more Endurance relies on good journalism.

In general, though, I crave the imaginative.

The poetic.

The epic.

And I miss it when I don’t get it, great as books like these are.

I really don’t know if there’s a better story than Endurance, but this one is good.

Of course, it messed me up.

Would you like to know why?

Lazarus.

Jesus brought him back to life. Then, what does Lazarus do? That we know of, nothing. And even if he did, guess what…

He died.

What, then, I ask you, is life? What is it? What and why and how in the world is it?

Is it not the strangest of phenomena that we can even think to comprehend?

And in it, we fill it with “How-To’s” and “For Dummies.”

As if we know for sure anything about it other than it will end.