“Doesn’t look lonely at all, does it? It has friends. Cares for the Hitaki nests, too. It won’t die.”

And today’s writing takeaway, from Castle in the Sky (because there just might be a Miyazaki festival going on at our local theater): Making someone care about a whole world–even a floating world, shrouded in the most beautiful clouds ever drawn, even a world that can fly–is hard. But make me care about one character living in your world–say, a giant gardening robot who cares about protecting birds’ nests and is a friend to fox squirrels–and I’ll care about your world too, utterly and completely, because what happens to the world, happens to that one character, too. Secondary takeaway: Flying is awesome. We should all do it as often as possible.