Friday, September 15, 2006


He Who Findeth A Friend
Isn't That What Friends Are For?

I recently had a friend point out something I do that he didn't like. At first, I balked. Wouldn't we all?
No one likes to hear what they are doing wrong. But then I thought about it for a bit, and I was truly thankful that he was honest with me...because I'd rather know about my problems (and fix them) than to run around like somebody with toilet-paper stuck to their shoe, while everyone points and laughs behind their back.
And as I thought, the passage came to mind, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend."
How true.

Then a new revelation dawned on me: where would we be without friends?
Now, as my close friends know, I'm not big on lots of friends. I'd rather have one or two good friends, than one or two hundred "just-so" friends.

So I concluded, after thought, that friends are beneficial because
I. They point out your mistakes (& we all need this),
II. Their purpose is to help (A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity)
III. They are just plain good to have around.

Yes, after reviewing my friend list, I could only come up with three reasons...ok, just kidding. These three reasons seemed to be the tops.
I am a selfish friend, I admit it.
Sometimes I want my friends to be there for me, but I don't feel as inclined to make sure I'm there for them when they need me. It's easier to get and not give, but more blessed to give than receive.

So I'm making a September Resolution (no...that's not usually done in most circles): Firstly, I will give hearty counsel to friends (Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel)...this means not nagging them, but genuinely helping them when they need it.
Secondly, I am going to be there in the most difficult times. The easy times are when we can go at it alone (not that we want to), but it's when the going really gets rough that we need friends.
And finally, I am going to be just good to be around. i.e., I'll stop locking my co-workers in the bathroom (yes, the lock is on the outside, isn't that awesome?). And I'll pay Sandy back that ten dollars I owe her...even though she's forgotten.
Because, hey: Isn't that what friends are for?

Saturday, September 09, 2006


What The Prof Is Reading Now
Till We Have Faces

I had briefly skimmed Till We Have Faces several years ago, because a copy wandered into my hands, but I was working on some other pieces at the time, so I never really sat down and digested it.
I purchased a copy some time back, but it lay curling in the back of my car until I did a deep-clean, and then I finally set down for a serious read...and I'm glad (of course) that I did.
The book opened inconspicuously enough, but soon (as the plot thickened and the characters developed) I found myself once again admitting that Lewis could use fiction to lay bare the soul in ways that his distinctly apologetic works could not.
As one reader remarked on the book: "The cast of characters in The Great Divorce, for example, or in the 'Space Trilogy' invariably remind us of people we know - and give us insights into what makes them tick. Nowhere in Lewis' works is the soul explored better than in Till We Have Faces, Lewis' masterwork of fiction and a stunning psychological and spiritual odyssey."

Lewis retells and enriches the myth of Cupid and Psyche (originally called The Golden Ass), although a lack of familiarity with the myth in no way diminishes from the enjoyment of the book.
In Lewis' capable hands, the tale sorts through issues such as family, jealousy, faith, the unknown, and ultimate meaning, culminating with a "face-to-face" scene of intensity and wonder which explains the book's title.

Those who are looking for the kind of overt Christian symbolism that characterized the Chronicles of Narnia will be disappointed with TWHF. While the theology in TWHF is pagan, at least on its surface, Lewis does a masterful job of intertwining the traditional beliefs of the main characters - some greek rationalism - with rumours of a much more intimate and beautiful way of knowing the gods (a Theistic hope).
The climactic scene itself plays off the Biblical phrase, "Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face" - I Corinthians 13. So Lewis does lead the reader toward the One who is love, but he uses the carrot of intrigue and spiritual longing rather than the steamroller of in-your-face-symbolism.

I will be honest in my reporting of TWHF, and say that it is not my favourite fictional work of Lewis', if simply because he is not at liberty to build the world as he pleases, but has to follow some ground-rules already laid down for the era of the story, the culture, etc.
However, Lewis manages to pull it off with ease; leaving us with no stiff taste of a retelling, as is often the case with such stories. Overall, I would rate it as a masterful piece, full of Lewis, and that is what makes it a classic.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006


The Implications of Autumn
The Best Is Yet To Come

For me, it is not so much the here & now that impress. It is not the grandeous awe of the moment, but the intangible promise of the next. It is not this life, but one not yet known, which I yearn.
Pilgrims feel this way.
Strangers feel this way.
Pilgrims & strangers of the world have another world to which they go, & it is this world which they yearn.

Whitman once said:
"O we can wait no longer,
We too take ship O soul
Joyous we too launch out on trackless seas.
Fearless for unknown shores on waves of ecstasy to sail."



C.S. Lewis once wrote:
"All joy (as distinct from mere pleasure, still more amusement) emphasises our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings."

The desire for this just-beyond has been expressed from the furthest regions of heathanism to the deepest Christianity, but its only answer lies in the promise of Salvation. The desire itself is one of intense longing...
Lewis says "This hunger is better than any other fullness; this poverty better than all other wealth. And thus it comes about, that if the desire is long absent, it may itself be desired, and that new desiring becomes a new instance of the original desire...The human soul was made to enjoy some object that is never fully given - nay, cannot even be imagined as given - in our present mode of subjective and spatio-temporal experience."

Autumn, I find, expresses in the best manner, this desire for what I know lies just beyond what I can humanly touch. It is not the full burst of Spring, which is new life, though we all experience this spring in our spiritual selves if we have met with new life through God.

It is not the pregnant weight of Summer; the representation of a mature self...life at its zenith, with full power, though we all experience this as we grow.

Autumn is not Winter; exhausted and spent, weary of its toils, & finished at long last, although we will experience Winter as we age, and come to an end on this earth.

Autumn is the sigh in the breath of the World. It is the steadfast prayer that looks toward the Dawn with keen anticipation of the Light.
Autumn is the Christian Joy in the ressurection: a promise that things here will grow older, and though many hearts may be in the Winter of their life, we may look forward to something beyond.
& Autumn is the longing that awakes within us the knowledge that we were meant for something more...as Lewis put it,
"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."