Dog-eared pages

On the writing of good stories:

"You might say that these are details that,
while having their essential place in the literal level of the story,
operate in depth as well as on the surface,
              increasing the story in every direction.
I think the way to read a book is always to see what happens,
but in a good novel,
more always happens than we are able to take in at once,
         more happens than meets the eye."

                                   --Flannery O'Connor
                                      Mystery and Manners
                                      page 71

(And I would add,
God redeems our own life stories,
those strange details deeper
     and more significant than we can know
from where we stand now.)