If you could rewrite any book’s ending, which one would you choose?
People are happy to rewrite endings for love tales with sad conclusions. But is love not whole, perfect, and unfailing? Or perhaps a tragic ending in tales or movies lingers longer in memory than a happy one.
Yet truly—is love not whole, perfect, and unfailing? Reality, however, reflects that no love is flawless in every relationship. This leaves room for utopian romance to rise and be embraced in fiction—or if perfect love is found at all, it is only in a fictional, virtual world. When the real world cannot offer it, the dreamy world can.
So many novelists—or AI agents—glorify perfect love for their customers, who long for fairytale, unrealistic relationships.
For years, I was a perfectionist, refusing to settle for less in all my dealings. To offer a few illustrations: in my faithfulness to friends, teammates, and even the shops with which I had long-standing relationships, I expected reciprocal treatment. If they failed me, I retreated. Likewise, in fictional stories, rewriting Romeo and Juliet, Love Story, and Ghost could ease my discomfort over their tragic endings.
But as I matured, I stopped “rewriting” people’s lives—both in tales and in reality. As I realised more and more, my desire for perfection lessened. For chasing perfection is like changing the world—like striking shadow punches through the air, each blow landing in emptiness.
As I mature further, I appreciate more what Scripture says: Forgetting what is behind but straining towards what is ahead, pressing on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. As I press on, I take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Philippians 3:12–14)
With that said, my answer to today’s prompt is obvious: If I do not write my past, I will not rewrite others’—for perfection lies in the One who is perfect and eternal.
May Scripture and the poem below help direct your focus not on rewriting the past, but on writing the present—while the pen is still in your hand.
…
✨ Master’s Table ✨
Everyone carries a story—
the question is whether it pleases.
Before the Master’s table, the verdict falls.
The sweet are rewarded.
The bitter only flee the flame.
The wretched are cast into the fire.
Yet stories are not burned.
The lost sheep must be kept safe—
it is not yet too late…
…✨
en yan hua fang 