Yes, Virginia, It Is Worth It. Usually.
For several years around this festive time of year, I reposted a thought piece of mine on “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus,” the famous New York Sun editorial from the late 1800s. I considered it, and still do, one of the greatest opinion pieces ever written in English. I stand by the claim. If somehow you have not read it yet, do so. And though last year I changed things up a bit, you can find my original thought piece reposted just about any years on this blog around late December.
The gist of it was how a single artistic effort by someone who shows up and gives a damn can leave a lasting impact far beyond anyone could possibly imagine. The effort and time put into the piece, (despite the absolute fact that it was part of the writer’s job) makes me think of my current novel The Rubble and the Shakespeare. (Now available at all major ebook stores by the way.)
I’m not by any means predicting I have written something destined for the same sort of transcendence as the Francis Church editorial. In fact, the parallel I am drawing between my novel and the editorial has nothing to do with my writing it per se It relates to some of the plots lines within the book.
In a half-ruined city still recovering from war, a man is asked by a friend to help him stage possibly the first ever Shakespeare production in the city’s history. (It was banned under the previous Regime.) Resources, people, venues, and other things must be secured and maintained in order to accomplish this. But in a place where sometimes food itself arrives late, and the cafe now serves coffee only, are the artistic and cultural endeavors worth the time and energy it will take to present in a vacated building something like The Tempest?
That is a question the main character attempts to answer throughout the book. In fact it is one of the central questions of the entire story—one I hoped to present when writing the novel in the first place.
And of course one that neither my novel, nor myself can answer for you. For myself the answer is of course, yes, or I would not write any of my novels. But one reason I usually answer yes to that question, (thought thank God I am not in a war torn environment) is the lessons learned from Yes, Virginia. Not so much or at least not only the Santa aspect, but the creation aspect. When I think that any given one of my creations could change lives, and when those in my novel try to contemplate the same thing regarding a theatrical production, “yes” is not only the fair answer, but it is the most hopeful, human one.
- Posted in: Miscellany
Ty Unglebower 