Vampires

You've probably seen them featured in airport bookstores: Stephenie Meyer's vampire series. Designed for young adult women, and written by a BYU graduate and mom, The Twilight Saga features Bella, a high-school girl who falls in love with Edward, a "vegetarian" vampire (yes, these vampires don't bite people!) who both live and attend high school in the small town of Forks, Washington. How does such series of books appeal to readers of all ages? Great writing and intriguing, if somewhat unusual, plots!


I completed the last of the four-book series, Breaking Dawn, this weekend. I wanted to share with you a quote from Eleazar, who, in conversation with Edward and Bella, speaks of the special and unique talents of each vampire. He says (page 597), "Yes, no talent ever manifests itself in precisely the same way, because no one ever thinks in exactly the same way."


This is brilliant! Though (most of) our talents are not vampire-like, Eleazar speaks so well to strengths -- both yours and mine. Even if you and I share the same list of strengths, we will manifest them very differently, depending upon how we think, our values and passions, our personalities, and our styles of communicating. Our strengths are unique! We have the opportunity to apply our strengths, each of us, in a unique way and in the venues we choose.


And we don't need to bite anyone on the neck.