The question is…first of all, this is a story told last Friday. A gentleman who is a professional writer writes the story of a friend of his today by the name of Eddie. He’s extremely fond of Eddie. He met Eddie seemingly by accident two years ago, to discover suddenly last Sunday morning, while in the shower, as he personally recalled an experience of his six years ago when a story was dictated to him in a similar manner, the story that he had that very week dictated; he felt the presence behind dictating, prompting. And then, the whole thing flashed into his mind: Why that central character of the story of six years ago is identical with Eddie of flesh and blood. Here, this character of fiction is now wearing flesh and blood. So he reread the story in my book The Law and The Promise, called “There is no Fiction” (that chapter). So he discovered that all of the characters that he as a writer created over the years actually are walking around this world in flesh and blood. He hasn’t met all as yet, but, said he, “There are many that I have written that I have no desire to meet in the immediate present. Not in the flesh, anyway!” Well, it doesn’t really matter; we’ve all done it, anyway. Without being a professional writer we are having these characters. For instance, I know a man in New York City, he didn’t know Mr. Roosevelt, didn’t know him at all, but he delighted…every morning when he shaved, he would spend, say, ten minutes shaving that face of his, a young man, thirty, and I said, “What on earth prompts you to do a thing like this?” He said, “You have no idea, Neville, what a joy I get out of it! There’s no show on Broadway that could give me the kick that I get when I look into that mirror and tell Roosevelt off. I’m looking in the mirror and I’m telling him what I think of him. I say, ‘Who do you think you are, king? This is America, a democracy. We don’t have any kings. So you want four years in the White House? And your four sons are they going to be all princes now? Are we going to have this royalty?’” I said, “What are you doing this for?” He said, “Oh, but Neville, what a joy, what a kick I get!” I said, “After all, you’re building a character.” Now, he doesn’t write. This man hasn’t written, but he was carrying on a mental conversation with something that he despised. Well, Mr. Roosevelt is gone from this world; never met the man, the man never met him; but he will meet a character that will make Roosevelt look like a bunch of roses to him. I mean these are the things we do in this world. And so, you single out…here, this is the year of politics, and so you are either for or against, this year. All the things we are for…and then you are going to take the other fella in your mind’s eye and you’re going to tell him off. You’re going to carry on these mental conversations with him and say everything that is unlovely. You’re going to spend the most time on the one you don’t like and little time on the one you like. Man should be for, not against. The morning’s paper, you can tell the editorial policy of a paper by the things they’re against. They’ll tell you exactly who they’re going to vote for. Read the columnist in any paper and you see the policy that will capture that paper. They’re against; they’re not for. But you be for in this world. You single out what you want; let them go their way. Vote, yes, certainly vote. Vote for someone—don’t vote against someone—and vote for him, if you want to vote, and you should. I think you should if you want to vote, vote for someone. But don’t waste your precious time in carrying on these mental conversations with the opposition; you’re only enlarging them and building characters in your world that you must tomorrow encounter. But, may I tell you, in the end, all will be forgiven, in the end all is forgiven…all. You could make lame people in this world, blind people, all kinds of people. In the end, you will confront them and in the twinkle of an eye all will be made perfect. Every one of them will be transformed into the beauty that they should have been in the beginning, that you disfigured them by your arguments and all of the things that you did. But in the end, you will confront them, an infinite sea of human imperfection. As you walk by—because in that moment you have been lifted up, and the heavenly chorus sang out your praise and called you by name, that you are risen—-and as you walk by, gliding by in this glorious body, this immortal body of yours made of fire and air it seems, and as you walk by everyone is molded into perfection because you are perfect. Then you understand the words: “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” And as you walk by, every one is made whole. So in the end all is perfect. But while we are struggling to awaken to the realization that our own Imagination is God, we create such strange, monstrous things. So to come back to your question, “What should he do?” Were I he, I would do nothing. He wrote them; they sold. He’ll be called upon tomorrow…he doesn’t have to conceive all the stories. Maybe when he goes to the conference, I don’t know, I’m not a writer, so when he goes into conference and they say I want a story and this is the plot, as a professional writer he has to take the suggestion of the producer, whoever is responsible, and he has to conceive and put it into these things. Like Shakespeare gave us these fantastic things…but what characters! Were I Shakespeare walking this earth, I wouldn’t undo one thing that he’s done; they’re so altogether marvelous, every character. In fact, we speak of Shakespeare’s four hundredth anniversary, and I think of the great ones. You take a Dickens…do you know that his characters are better known than Dickens? They’re all alive, and don’t you meet them? Haven’t you met Scrooge? Who hasn’t met a Scrooge in this world? He’s far more alive than Dickens. Dickens as a character…maybe he wasn’t pleasant, I don’t know, maybe I wouldn’t want to have a dinner party with him…but I enjoy his characters. I wouldn’t mind having them to dinner, quite a few of them, not all. And so these characters are alive and they’re all people in the world. You meet them. And one can play so many parts. You could be the most protective, loving husband in this world, and in the office you’re a devil. And yet at home you could be to her all that she desires as a husband. So we’re all characters [...] anyway. You hear them all day long, they’re doing [...].714 ¶48