A Pink Bear Named Cheri

Sometimes, when I finish watching a movie, playing a video game, or reading a book, I feel like I walk away with my senses heightened somehow. I love hearing my voice, feeling my mouth form words, I seem to notice more things when I look around, and things feel so much more... touchable. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it's one of my favorite feelings. Life is so real at that point, it's easy to respect.

It's easy to forget how special life is, especially when you look to all the feel good fiction out there. The fiction that has all these stories of true love and simple charm, of easy riches and wondrous adventures, of solved problems and happy endings. That stuff's way awesome, and much better than whatever we're suffering through here. It's hard to look at that stuff and be content with what we have.

"But those stories are ridiculous, they're unreal," you say. "I'm sure if you look to fiction that portrays life negatively, you'll find that it becomes easy to see your every day life as pleasant."

So, I turn to other sources of fiction, where life is hard. Sure, then our life is obviously pleasant, but we're still taken by the worlds, the characters, and the issues they have to face. Sometimes, we're even willing to live through a lot of bad, in order to get to a situation where we find potential good. So, a part of us is connected to the safety of our hot showers and comfortable beds, but someone in us at least thinks they want to fight zombies, battle orcs, travel in deep space, or track down our arch villain.

Maybe it's the cool powers. Maybe we think, "Hey, I wanna use the force. If I had the force I'd be able to cope with having a multitude of planets depend upon me." Or maybe, "Sure, wheelchair, no problem. That comes with the mind powers though, right?" Even, "Yeah, I don't need any powers, just give me unnatural shooting capabilities... Oh, and the ability to get shot a bunch without dying, and when I do die, I respawn."

Maybe we just want to be someone else. Someone cooler, better looking, more talented, funnier, smarter. We're not though. We'll never be anyone other than who we are. And I don't think that's a bad thing. Neither do I think the real world is terrible through and through. It's just not perfect. We're not perfect. But we want more, and we want to be more.

So, I'm thinking about how special life is, and I'm realizing that even though I've got a really good thing going, I want more. This really good thing that I have isn't enough. I wanna fly. I want to be a detective with a robot sidekick. I want to fall in love.

I'm on that train of thought when I arrive at this stop.

"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world."
-C.S. Lewis.

Now, excuse me, I have an appointment with a pink bear named Cheri.