It’s a question that many of us secretly pray we’re never faced with, because in the end, we value our lives and our safety and even our comforts to a very high degree. The deeper question is … would you put others before yourself? We hope we do, on an individual level, on an interpersonal level, but the big “IF” is still hovering out there, potentially in our very own future.
Many of us have worked hard to get where we are, and what we have is both a gift of grace and the result of many hours, days, and years of intense effort. It may be a little in the eyes of some, but in our eyes, it represents home, safety, memory, and even contentment. It may be the gifts we give, and the pleasure that we take in knowing that we’re helping others – a favorite charity, for example. It might be someone we’re taking care of such a children, a spouse, a parent, or even a good friend who has had a hard time.
If we, for the greater good, are asked to take all of that and place it at risk, make it so that tomorrow every part of that life could simply be gone – where we might not even exist afterwards, would we do it? I’m not sure there are many places in life where one would be truly tested more than that.
That moment, where that exact choice is made, is the artwork Kat Miller has so skillfully provided. In The Rescue, Vanarra must make such a choice. After living a horribly difficult life, she has worked and clawed and saved to truly achieve a security and wealth that few mixed bloods could even dream of or aspire to. Then, for the lives of strangers, she’s asked to put all of that on the line for those who discarded her, were cruel to her, used her. The tears she cries are tears of haunted fear, remembering how fragile her life once was and terrified by the realization that because of one act, she could again be the impoverished cast-out – all she is and all she has done wiped away by just … one … choice.
It makes you wonder, what would you do?
JTL