Why Fiction Endures

In 1914, the Endurance Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton attempted to land on Antarctica, which had yet to be explored by a human being. Before they could reach their destination their ship was wrecked on Elephant Island. Shackleton set off with two other companions to climb the glaciers of South Georgia island in order to get to the populated whaling villages of South Georgia Island - there he hoped to get help for his stranded crew. They traveled through the night, backtracking several times in order to get to the whaling station that would be able to help their crew. In his account of the journey Shackleton wrote: "I have no doubt that Providence guided us…I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers it seemed to me often that we were four, not three."

T. S. Eliot wrote in a footnote to The Waste Land that "at the extremity of their strength, had the constant delusion that there was one more member than could actually be counted." This led him to write:

Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you.
-V. 360-363

This image has always haunted me - walking on a vast expanse of snow and feeling out of the corner of my eye that someone is there.

I feel the same way about myth and story. In each one of us there is a longing to be loved unconditionally, to be part of a great story that is leading to that most wonderful of locations - the place where you become who you were meant to be. I believe that the almost universal longing to be a part of such a story is proof that we were made for something more - that we were made to be a part of that story. In that way, God is revealing himself out of the corners of our eyes what we long for and wish was true.