I think it's gone way past the point where the PtB expect you to prove you can write. You did that, and can keep doing it. There's no end to imagination.

Oh, it's not that I think They're asking me to prove I can write per se, but asking me to put my money where my mouth is in terms of using my writing as a conscious tool for change and healing.

It's one thing to write well and store your writing in a shoe box under the bed (or in a hard drive on your computer). It's something else to risk rejection and send it to a magazine to be read by strangers. Both of those things I've done (though less of the latter than the former, I'm afraid). But it's a whole different catagory when an individual comes to you and says (basically): "Help me with your words."

I really do think that a well-crafted story (and, to a lessor extent, a poem) has much in common with a magic-religous ritual. Mostly, those similarities are merely in the outward form -- until you put intent into it -- then, it can be a very powerful act, and one laden with responibility.

I think it is that responsibility that the PtB are asking me to take up.... and that is one reason I was both daunted by the task and, ultimately, agreed to take it on. If I said "no" now, there was no telling when or if I'd ever get another oportunity to say "yes".