A murderer and a famous author die on
the same day. They are brought before God for judgment. God reviews the
killer’s files and judges his soul for immediate extinction. Then he reviews
the writer’s files and judges his soul for eternal torture in hell. The writer
starts to protest, “Why should I suffer more than the killer? I didn’t kill
anyone!” God replies, “The damage you left in the world is greater than that of
the killers. Your books are full of evil thoughts that will inspire generations
of people to do harm to others.”
I always tell my students to
write responsibly. When you share
something with the world - whether you share it in speech, writing, or art -
you impact people. The impact can
be positive and give people hope, or it can be negative and hurt people.
I personally prefer love stories
and feel good stories. Unfortunately, lately they are hard to find. It seems
like publishers and producers prefer stories with more violence, cynicism, and
dark content.
The shooting in Las Vegas, like
other shooting incidents before, shocked many people and renewed the debate
about banning guns. While this debate is going on, maybe we should also consider
the impact of the violence in the arts and the media, as well as in our
personal expression, on our society and see what each of us can do to change
it.
