I recently helped an old friend in Germany to access SOL, specifically my story "Where the Mountain Rises." He sent me an email which I have translated and would like to share it with readers:
I see great analogies in your story to the reality in Germany (possibly also to the USA). The protagonists have bravely fought their way to the hut, but what comes next?
To me, the story makes a rather pessimistic impression, because exactly what the content describes on a "small scale" is happening here in Germany on a "big scale" - namely the decline of an entire country. I don't expect anything good for Germany anymore - only chaos and decline, murder and manslaughter. Greed for money and striving for power are to blame for this. And yet it would be so easy to live together.
There are not enough mountain huts here where decent people can eventually flee.
Perhaps it is a good thing that I am already so old and do not have to live to see the coming misery. Please don't think that I'm depressed, but I'm not optimistic either. I make the best of everything that happens to me..... Or to put it another way:
"It doesn't matter how old you are, but how you are old." (A wise man once said that.)
These are my thoughts that spontaneously went through my head at the end of reading your story.