This end note is written in the form of a question and answer session between myself and an unnamed questioner. This is my way of talking about my story and being preachy, so if you're not interested, feel free to skip it. However, I encourage you to read it and get my thoughts on the story, especially if you plan to e-mail me personally, and even more especially if you plan to flame me. :-)
So that’s it? The story ends there?
Yup, that’s the end.
So what happens next?
I don’t know. The next story in the chronology (that I’ve written) is “Forever, Always Young,” which takes place in 2011.
“Peace On Earth, Goodwill To Turtles.” Does that mean they live happily ever after?
The Ninja Turtles? Happily ever after? Somehow I doubt it.
No, no, I mean Don and Raph. What really happened?
Well, they apologized to each other, in their own way. I was trying to infer that with the giving of the CDs. Actually, I thought it was pretty obvious.
And after that? You didn’t really resolve it, did you?
Well, that one conflict between Don and Raph was resolved. There may be others at some point. But if you mean I didn’t fix it so they would never argue about religion again; no, I didn’t.
Why not? Wouldn’t it be nice if everything went back to the way it used to be, before the religious issues came up?
Yeah, it would be. But life doesn’t work that way. Shit happens, you deal with it, and you move on.
Why did you decide to make Don a Lutheran anyway?
Because I’m a Lutheran and I figure I know more about the Lutherans than, say, about the Mormons. Or some other group. “Write what you know.” Also, I’m lazy and I didn’t have to do so much research that way.
You’re a Christian?
Is there an echo in here?
Oh, I understand. You’re on Don’s side in this whole fight, and Raph’s the bad guy.
No, actually I-
This was just your subversive way of incorporating Christianity into your fanfiction. I know how you Christians work; you want to sugar-coat Christian teachings and try to force us to swallow them.
Will you just-
So you use my favorite heroes to preach your religion. I’m real impressed. Have you no shame?
SHUT UP.
What?
Shut up and listen, will ya? Yeah, I’m Christian, and I incorporated some Christian teachings into this story. But I wasn’t just beating on Raph either; I thought I gave Don a couple knocks. In fact, for this story I turned Don into just the type of person who really irritates me: I call them die-hard evangelists, people who force their faith on others without any limits of respect, decency, or kindness. Even if the beliefs they’re pushing are good, they tend to push them too hard. Like Greg said, sometimes you need to back off and let God do the preaching for you.
So if you and Donatello are both Lutheran, you WERE expressing your beliefs in the story, right?
Sort of. I share some of the beliefs Don expressed in the story, but I will not say which ones. Many things I believe upset people. I’m not going to stop believing in God or declaring my faith because it offends people, that’s not what I mean at all. But there are some aspects of the faith I just don’t feel comfortable telling non-believers about constantly. It’s a matter of tact, which die-hard evangelists don’t have. That’s why they’re so bad for Christianity (in general). If you go around telling people they’re going straight to hell, they’re naturally going to start thinking that Christians are jerks and Christianity is a bunch of crap.
And you’re trying to convince us that it’s not?
Well, yeah, but that’s not the point of the story.
So what is the point?
This is a tough one to pin down. And I hope you’re not just skimming this looking for a quick answer. The point of the story was to make the reader think about something we don’t like (as a society) to think about: religion. Everybody thinks religion is something private you should do in home and at church (or temple, or mosque, or synagogue, or wherever) and not talk about in public. Everybody always gets offended when others talk about their faith or their God, and I think it’s important that we DO talk about faith. I think mostly the story is about tolerance.
Define “tolerance.”
First, I’ll tell you what tolerance ISN’T. Tolerance doesn’t mean “everyone believes something different, and whatever you want to believe is right.” I deny that, as many people do. People accuse Christians of being bigots because we believe that our religion is right. I mean, if you don’t believe that you’re right, what’s the point of having a belief at all, you know what I mean? My definition of tolerance is: “everyone has a right to believe what they want to believe. Even if I think you’re wrong, you’re still entitled to your beliefs, and I’ve got to respect that.” That’s what I tried to write about here.
Don and Raph’s problem was that they refused to acknowledge that each of them had a right to have their own beliefs.
So how does that connect to the ending?
Well what I was trying to bring across is that Don and Raph managed to learn something about tolerance. Don’s not going to stop believing in God, and Raph’s not going to convert to Christianity. If either of those things happened, I’d be lying to my readers, because life doesn’t happen that way. What really happened, as far as I can see, is that Raph and Don realized that they could love and respect one another without giving in and renouncing their own beliefs. Christians and non-Christians can be close as brothers and as friends without ripping each other to shreds about religious belief.
So it really was a happy ending.
Yeah, I like to think so. Not that Don and Raph’s relationship will be all sunshine and laughter for the rest of their lives, but they both learned something. And they resolved their immediate conflict. And that makes it a happy ending.
So couldn’t you tell this story without using the TMNT?
Yeah, but I wanted to use TMNT, characters we are all familiar with, to discuss issues we may NOT be familiar with.
Huh?
Maybe people pay more attention if the story is interesting. I used the TMNT to make it interesting. At least I hope it was. I was a bit preachy and serious at times, I know. But I also spent a lot of time on the “fun” parts, like the scenes with the puppy, Taiwam, and the snowball fight. I wanted this to be a fun read, but I hoped I could say something significant at the same time.
Speaking of Taiwam, will we see him or Greg Trelland again?
I don’t know about Greg. But Taiwam is a permanant part of the storyline, so you may see him again. He also appears in Round 1 of “Crystal Queer,” my elementals story.
I still have more questions. Will you be upset if I challenge some of what you’ve said?
Of course not. If you have more questions about anything you’ve read here, e-mail me. I’d like to hear from you if you like my story, or even if you hate it. And if you just want to chat about religion or TMNT or life in general, I’d be perfectly happy to.
(Most TMNT fans don’t see the religious side of me. I try not to bring religion up on mailing lists or chat rooms, because with a big group of people from all different backgrounds, one badly timed or misinterpretted comment can turn into an all-out flame war. People get hurt and mad at each other, and sometimes the wounds never really heal. And unfortunately, religion is more likely to cause a flame war than any other topic. I have experience with this type of thing; on one TMNT mailing list, I’ve seen a couple misplaced comments from nice people spiral out of control until the list became the Hate Inferno. Then people start making general comments about whole groups of people and everyone gets dragged in. I’ve also been in a situation where a calm discussion about homosexuality (with a group of good friends) turned into a Bible-quoting, curse-spewing, insult-hurling free-for-all. It’s not fun and it’s not pretty.)
But anyway, I like to think of myself as being open-minded enough to accept honest criticism of my beliefs and my writing. The only thing that would be unacceptable to me would be something like: “Dear Christian Bigot; I hate your writing, and therefore I hate you personally. You and your work both suck.” etc., etc. But I’m feelin’ good, because although a few friends of mine have had letters like these, I haven’t yet. (Knock on wood and cross your fingers, or whatever it is that you do.) :-)
Any final words?
Yeah. Congradulations if you actually made it all the way through the story and through this author’s note thing. I’m impressed. And whoever you are, whatever you believe, here’s wishing you happy holidays. As I am so fond of saying in my rare moments of seriousness:
Peace, honor, and love go with you, now and always,
Lindsay (the Blue one)