When i was little, my mom read the Little House on the Prairie series to me. I immediately fell in love with the characters, begging my mom to read another chapter when she would close the book and say it was time for bed. I remember sobbing hysterically the night she read about Mary going blind. I refused to let her read more of the book, and it took days of convincing to get me to let her continue. 

I don’t really know what it is about me that gets so attached to characters in stories, that is so sensitive. I still a feel a little heartbroken about Mary. And even the thought of the end of Prison Break turns my stomach in knots. Or Lost. Or The last Harry Potter book where everyone dies, or that movie they made about Ernest Hemingway where he leaves Sandra Bullock at the end. Or even though I was happy with the ending of the Hunger Games, I couldn’t stand the pain written into the main character.  I thrive on happy endings and redemption. I just can’t do tragedies. 

I think this is because in life, at one point, we all live a tragedy. I don’t know why God chooses to write tragedy into our Stories, maybe because that’s the only way he can point us back to Himself. I don’t know. But maybe my aversion to reading about or watching them is that they hit a little too close to home. I think being super sensitive with a good imagination makes me feel way too much of what the author is portraying and I end up feeling like its all happening to me. Tragedy isn’t entertaining, it’s just so painful – in our own lives…watching other people live it.

In the end, I will always be a fan of stories of Redemption. I will always love seeing the underdog win or the unlikely hero rise from the ashes or the screw-ups find peace with themselves. Maybe this is because I refuse to let tragedy dictate my life, even though it may effect it from time to time. Because even in the face of tragedy, I ultimately believe in happy endings and forgiveness and change and redemption.