Carrying Water

Everybody I've talked to about this Weingarten piece has pretty much the same response:

impressed, inspired — but also terrified, that I'll never do something that good.

There are a folderfull of stories that spark that same feeling — a feeling not much different from staring at the stars on a dark night.

Von Drehle on Nixon. Maraniss after Sept. 11. Stuever on 9 o'clock. Death of a Racehorse.

Years after that last one, W.C. Heinz told Gare Joyce: "If young writers appreciate my work now, that's a positive," he told me. "I hope they learn something about writing."

Maybe that's why these hit me like they do. They make me want desperately to be better.

What's yours?