Button Eyes

Not every child will be spared from the fight. 

     But every child 

       Deserves a story strong enough

            To help them

                   Through it . . .

So you and I, we must be strong enough to write one for them. 

And when we've lost our way in the infinite maze of words, vaporized feelings, unspeakable symbolism, rationalized philosophy and irrational poetry, we must remember the monsters some children won't be spared from, and pick up our pens and begin again; not for ourselves and the personal glory of being the story-telling, but for the child who is staring out a car window right now, day-dreaming about flying through the passing trees, and riding deer, and throwing touchdown passes, because the people in the car with him have pits in their eyes that never end, so he imagines to avoid them; we do it for him and the hundreds of thousands of kids just like him. We are the fuel for the imagination. 

When we want to give up, we remember him, and begin again.

Do it for the blue-haired girl whose parents have buttons for eyes. 

-CH 8/8/25