Children of the Mind, by Orson Scott Card

 

The concept of these "children" of Ender's mind is fascinating, and their battle to become is meaningful. Ender's history, from Ender's Game on, makes the existence of these children meaningful, makes their battles meaningful, and makes what they become - to be the most beautiful gift that Ender left for the human species on the hundred worlds.

"The whitest of them, the thinnest, the most elegant of the people of this place called themselves Pacifican and spoke at times as if the ancient music of the place rang in their ears, as if the ancient stories spoke of their own past. Adopted into the family, that's what they were, and the true Samoans, Tahitians, Hawaiians, Tongans, Maoris, and Fijians smiled and let them feel welcome even though these watch-wearing, reservations-making, hurrying people knew nothing of the true life in the shadow of the volcano, in the lee of the coral barrier, under the sky sparkled with parrots, inside the music of the waves against the reef."

I suppose I like that quote because I yearn for the life of those who are slow enough and in tune enough to know everything of the true life in the shadow of a volcano. I might live inside 'the music of the waves against the reef' for a minute, but I'll never live there for an hour, let alone years. God has called me to both a higher and a lower path:

"Ender would have wanted neither more nor less for him. Changing the world is good for those who want their names in books. But being happy, that is for those who write their names in the lives of others, and hold the hearts of others as the treasure most dear."

I may become someone, through God, who has their name written in a book. But if that happens it will be because I am happy, because I have succeeded in writing my name in the lives of others, and hold their hearts most dear. It will just have to be more hearts than Card was referring to.

Spoiler alert: One of the characters in the book thinks about her lofty long term goals, her short term goals, and then the fact that she's hungry and needs to use the bathroom.

"I guess that means I'm human, thought Wang-mu. Not a god. Maybe just a beast after all. Part raman (good and reasonable). Part varelse (selfishly destructive). But more raman than varelse, at least on her good days. Peter, too, just like her. Both of them part of the same flawed species, determined to join together to make a couple of more members of that species. Peter and I together will call forth some aiua to come in from Outside and take control of a tiny body that our bodies have made, and we'll see that child be varelse on some days and raman on others. On some days we'll be good parents and some days we'll be wretched failures. Some days we'll be desperately sad and some days we'll be so happy we can hardly contain it. I can live with that."

Me too.