I've noticed an interesting trend in my soliloquies on Quartorlen. As I wax eloquent on the colorful landscape painted across my imagination, I've come to realize the image in my mind is a lot like what I imagine Heaven will be like.
Which is good and bad. Because Quartorlen is not heaven. Nor even an allegory for heaven. The folk who dwell there are flawed, evil is dangerously present, and darkness often threatens to blot out the deep colors the land is made from.
But the realization brings up an important point. See, Quartorlen is a place I would love to live. It is the perfect combination in my mind of different landscapes and climates. From icy white mountains to thick green forests, rolling blue downs to rocky red cliffs, the world of the freeborn is everything amazing here on earth, all rolled together, doubled, and painted in brilliant colors. And I'm pretty sure that that's what heaven's going to be like. Just infinitely, eternally, imagination-defyingly better.
So why does all this matter? Because it means that deep down in my soul is set a longing for a home that I have never seen; a home that is perfect in every way for me; a home that is heaven.
And when I get there, I can say, like Jewel the Unicorn of Narnia;
"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now."
Amen, Farjag.
ReplyDeleteI think that rings true for every reader or writer of fantasy-- those good, beautiful, fictional things are a shadow of the amazing things we have not yet seen.
The glorious hope of heaven. Indeed, indeed.
Could not agree more. Though we know the worlds in our heads are dangerous and sometimes very nasty places, we always long for them because some deep part of us wants to be there, regardless.
ReplyDeleteAuthors have a weirder wanderlust than most, it seems xD
You've been tagged!
ReplyDeleteTo see it, go to http://pathfindersfindings.blogspot.com/2012/07/ive-been-taggedtwice.html