You Do What You Can

I was watching an old CSI:NY episode (#601). I watch them because the characters are good, the plotting is good, and they deal with real life issues while being true to the characters.

One of the main characters (Danny, for those who know), recently wounded in a drive-by shooting, appears in a wheelchair to meet with a potential source of information who will talk only to him. She has a peripheral acquaintance with him and with the shooters that makes her feel responsible for his crippling. A shadowy assailant appears to shoot the girl informant, who falls to the floor and lies, bleeding.

Danny tumbles out of his wheelchair, yells at his fellow CSI to go after the shooter, then proceeds to drag his paralyzed body by his arms over shattered glass to reach the wounded girl who had tried to help him by bearing witness.

To me, this is the essence of heroism. You do what you can. You may be wounded, you may be physically or emotionally impaired . . . but you can connect with, you can dredge up, whatever you can do to make the situation better, to help where you can.

Myth and story can help us learn how to do this. That is why I write, why I write novels. They humanize the myth we all know underlies and informs our daily life. They help us, they show us, how to live like, how to live up to, our heroes.

I believe that it is up to us, the writers, to offer heroes and situations which test them and display their heroism; to give ourselves, to give others, models of how to handle the problems in our daily lives. This is why I write.