Doxacon is a gathering of Orthodox Christians with an interest in fantasy, sci-fi, and gaming. This year they asked me to deliver the lay keynote (conference theme: "Making Virtuous Decisions in Fiction"), and I confessed that I don't know much about those popular forms of media. So we compromised. First, I speak about Charles Dickens, and how some non-virtuous personal decisions affected his life and his writing; then my son, Fr. Stephen Mathewes, relates the "virtuous decisions" question to some popular books, movies, and videogames. At the end I came back with a few thoughts about bees. Enjoy!