Success

I watched a spot on "Sunday Morning" about Stephenie Meyer, the author of "Twilight" and the subsequent books in the series. I wasn't familiar with these books-- they are about a teenage girl and a teenage vampire who fall in love and have to constantly dodge his blood lusting.

Anyway, it wasn't the books that struck me, nor the hordes of screaming teens who show up at Meyer's book signings, but rather her story. She grew up in a Mormon home and, like many good Mormon women do, married and started having kids. She wrote the first book in her series after having a dream about the main characters. Meyer pounded out the story in a summer in between her duties as a mom and housekeeper. She'd never written before, nor did she have any aspiration to become a writer.

When asked by the "Sunday Morning" reporter if she was afraid her fame would disappear as quickly as it came, Stephenie Meyer said no. It isn't that she doubted her success could go away overnight, its that her life was very happy before-- going back to the status quo didn't frighten her because the life she had with her family and old job were good.

This is a sweet kind of success. Our culture is rather fond of the passionate, all or nothing stories. But the goal of each person, whether success reaches your doorstep or forever eludes you, should be to strive for a good life.