Five More Truths I Learned from Fiction

Fiction mirrors life.
Good fiction must ring true.
Fiction explores great truths.
There's nothing new under the sun. All novels are variations on a certain number of themes. (And they are all found in the Bible.) Only the characters and details differ.
Through fiction, I've felt the pain of a broken marriage, the results of unforgiveness, the guilt of angry words that once spoken can never be recalled.
In a previous blog, I explored seven truths I have learned from reading fiction. Here are five more:

1. To achieve happiness, I must become vulnerable. In reading fiction, especially romance novels, I've observed the negative results of always trying to protect oneself from emotional hurts. In order to love and be loved, I must be willing to be rejected, which is painful. It's worth the risk.

2.  Never allow bitterness to take root in my heart. Miss Havisham, the wealthy but eccentric spinster in Dickens' Great Expectations, is a prime example of the destructiveness of bitterness to herself and everyone she came in contact with. Bitterness destroys.

3. Expect the unexpected. Life is like a novel, often even stranger. Anything can happen. It's not over until it's over.

4. Only God is completely good, and we often don't understand His ways. This is where faith comes in. This is something I have explored through the pages of  both fiction and biographies and come to accept.

5. Evil can only be overcome through forgiveness. In the pages of fiction I've seen how unforgiveness only hurts the one who refuses to forgive and blocks the heart from giving and receiving love.

What truths have you learned through fiction?