Someone said that when you make a movie, you’re never really satisfied. You just run out of time. In some ways, I suppose that’s the same with writing a book. You get to the end and there is so much more you could add. Or you could muck about with the order. Rewrite paragraphs. Edit. All that stuff. Always more can be done.
One of the places I have spent a lot of mental space is on the chapters called “The Intersection of Science and Belief.” I agonized about taking those several chapters right out because I think they might cause me grief. I originally wrote them because it’s hard to write something on Genesis one without talking about Evolution. The problem is that though I’m quite educated and have a fair amount of understanding about both of those topics, I don’t feel like I have enough. My main purpose was to dance around the edges of the topic and ask some questions, make people think that there might be more to the topic then we’ve really understood. But I have consistently thought that people might get turned off when they get to that section. Or that they will hammer me because I’m not an expert. So I kept thinking I should cut out that section. Besides, the book is too long anyway. But… everybody that read it said “Keep it”. And who am I to argue? Their repeated phrases kept pulling me back from the edge of scissoring that part out.
I suppose I say all that to be a bit vulnerable about it all. And also to say that even up to the last minute, there are things that teeter on the edge of dissatisfaction. To cut or not to cut. That is the question.
