The great thing about my Bridge to Nowhere character Miz Mike is that she’s courageous. It’s easy for her to be brave. The people in the books who come after her – even with guns, arson, car crashes and fighting dogs – aren’t real. It’s pretty easy to face down make believe characters, even at their most nefarious. Oh, why couldn’t it be as simple in real life as it is on the written page!
Just yesterday, I flubbed it. It was a small, simple step in being brave and I blew it. I commented on the dying oak trees in Auburn, Alabama, that an irate Alabama fan had poisoned. The trees were living creations of God. It is terrible that spite drove that person to kill those lovely, historic trees. But what I neglected to say is that 1.6 billion beating hearts are stopped every year in the U.S. for the sake of “convenience.” Abortion murders children. Even one child’s life is worth more than all the live oak trees in the world. What if Abraham Lincoln had been aborted? Thomas Edison? Agatha Christie? You?
I didn’t put this on Facebook immediately, as I should have, in case “Friends” de-friended me. How inane is that? Real friendship allows freedom of choice and thought between friends. Real friendship is big enough to overlook differences and keep the connection. In this day of social networking, Facebook and Twitter are important to authors. They are places an author can showcase his/her work and keep others informed about new releases. But nothing in the world, including any book present or future, is more important than making glad the heart of God. Plus I really believe that all the Facebooking, Tweeting, and PR releases in the world won’t bring success without God’s blessing. He is the key to promotion.
I’ve apologized to God. Now I’m apologizing to my readers. I’ll try to be brave and courageous and always do the right thing in the future. Miz Mike would expect that. More importantly, God demands that. We are to fear Him, not other people.
Okay, Miz Mike. I’ve got your back! Where are we going today? Back to the Nevada desert with the wild horses and tumbleweed circuses in the air? Great! I’ll just grab some chocolate for the road…uh…Mike…aren’t there a lot of rattlesnakes in the desert?
Stephanie Parker McKean 
Well said, Steve. All of us live in fish bowls now, and most of us want approval, or at least to avoid upheaval. For authors, it becomes, sometimes, a matter of feeding children and paying bills. For teachers, of not being subjected to pressure to conform, of being reminded that there are thousands of teachers out there seeking openings who are willing to toe lines–and so it goes. I’ve never been courageous, but can no longer be as quiet as I once was. We have to pray that those that denounce the intolerant will themselves learn that tolerance is never one’s exclusive birthright–but a quality that must be nurtured, shared, and extended in order to have any merit at all.