further up & further in

Yes, I know: back already? But I forgot to mention that I've added another link along the side, a link to The Face of the Other, my CS Lewis professor's blog. If you haven't already, check it out: There's not much about Lewis specifically, but Professor Young's a most interesting fellow and an excellently entertaining writer. I've been to his class for all of two days and already I'm planning the rest of my undergraduate career around the classes he'll teach.

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With Lewis on my mind, then, and a cup of tea to keep me company (Pomegranate Pizazz, no less), I'll take another homework break to allow some thoughts to breathe.

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Our first assignment was to read, in the day between classes, The Screwtape Letters. I didn't think much of it---though I was excited, I've read it a few times before---but once again Lewis read like scripture and I found myself marking even more of the book than before. Each time I read a book I annotate in a different color---and Letters has now become a hodge-podge of black and pink and blue and a smattering of green. It is remarkable how each new reading brings out a new aspect of the book, and that you may never grow tired of words because they are forever changing as you grow. Of course there are always those small passages that, looking back on, you laugh at---how much more you understand now! To open a long-loved book, scribbled in and written over, is to understand the journey of self.

What I found in Letters this time around is a truth so simple and inherent in its being that to see it in print sends thunder to the soul. This time I found my colored pen fixed on the passages of Christ's mercy, and of his pure Love, and of his hope in us. There are too many instances to count, but of all the now-blue sentences, this one has stayed with me the most:

"When He talks of their losing their selves, He only means abandoning the clamour of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever."

Simply in typing this in I feel there is no need to expound except to say that, if you really are wondering what to do with daylight, I recommend listening to Brooke Fraser's CS Lewis Song.