He found himself mulling his answers over and over while taking care of other business. And oftentimes, he realized that he wasn’t even using a background thought process, either. He was just thinking about it normally while on autopilot going around Warrenhold.
In the end, this was what he decided to write back:
Dear Mr. Caleb Hammerwell,If only all the letters he received were like that. He wouldn’t have minded writing up responses to them all day long.
Thank you for the letter. Your questions have given me a lot to think about. It seems to me that bravery is a funny thing. You say that I’m brave as if it’s an obvious fact, but I’ve never felt very brave at all. The things I’ve done that you might say were brave, I would instead argue that those were just things that had to be done. Because if I hadn’t at least tried to do them, then something bad would have happened.
So I think that’s my answer to your questions, Caleb. Don’t worry about being brave. Just focus on figuring out what the right thing to do is--and then doing it whenever you can. It might be really hard, sometimes, so don’t worry too much if you mess up. A good friend of mine once told me that we shouldn’t respond to failure with sadness. We should respond by becoming better, until our best is good enough to succeed.
Sorry if that wasn’t the answer you were looking for. And congrats on turning seven.
Best wishes,
Hector Goffe
Unfortunately, while there were some letters in a similarly innocent vein--such as one from a particularly precocious little girl asking him to marry her when she grew up--there were also some that left him with a bit of heartache after he finished reading them.
One little boy wanted him to come beat up some mean kids at his school. Another wanted him to bring the family cat back to life. And still another wanted him to make his mother stop drinking.
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