The Greatest Love Story Ever, and other News

So I saw "the greatest love story ever" twice this week, and I highly recommend it. It was shamelessly promoted with that superlative, with which I wouldn't disagree. I'm almost more excited, however, for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie that is coming out Friday, December 9th. I saw my first preview for it last night and was brought to tears already...it's just a wonderful story. I have started reading The Narnian. I was a little put off at first by Alan Jacobs' preface in which he is almost negative and actually vows never to write about CS Lewis again because he apparently gets so much grief from the diehard fans. As I began reading the book, I do find it fascinating (although sort of heavy) reading; he connects parts of Lewis' real life to parts of the Narnia stories and how his imagination was formed by events such as the loss of his mother at a young age. Jacobs seems to be a very discerning and thoughtful writer, and of course his subject is a rich mine of inspiring wisdom. I still recommend The Letters to Children by CS Lewis to anyone---this short book gives an entertaining and real look into Lewis' personality, sense of humor, and childlike fascination with animals, among other things! The upcoming movie looks truly awesome and I hope to see it Saturday, December 10th in Grandville (and, I hope, in many other times and places).

Great Quote

I read this today in Lewis' Letters to Children: asked why he became a writer, he said "Chiefly, I think, because my clumsiness or fingers prevented me from making things in any other way." I think this may have to do with why I aspire to write. Today I tried to use a sewing machine. The thread on the spool ended up within the innards of the sewing machine, wound around the bobbin (a few of you know what this means). However, I was determined to not go downstairs and ask my extremely mechanically-savvy neighbor/landlady for assistance. After all, I can read directions, at least.

Excited for The Narnian

Just wanted to say how excited I am to read The Narnian (by Alan Jacobs), the new biography of Lewis. Lately I have been thinking about him a lot, sort of how I think saints are looked at, curious about how he lived and how I can imitate his example. I'm wondering how he wrote...it seems like he lived quite a solitary existence and maybe that is necessary to be such a prolific writer. And yet he can't have been quite alone---I don't think you could write that way if you were not also living your life. And I'm wondering what his spiritual practices were. He seems to have integrated faith into his life, and to have had a faith in God's presence in all he did, rather than anxiety about how to grow closer to God, or how to help others grow closer to God. He just did it...how? Grace, I suppose. That's what he would say. In his letters to children he's always asking for their prayers. I love the letters, they're so funny. He does not often proseletyze (how I think of it, pushily) and yet his faith shone through and influenced countless people. ***Hey, I know I'm a bit long-winded, but please feel free to post relevant comments, thoughts, and information of any length or nature!

Narnia & Christ in Me: Recent Thoughts

Reading in a book called Letters to Children by CS Lewis today and came across the following: writing to a little girl named Phyllida, who had been complaining about silly adventure stories with no point, Lewis said "If they are silly, then having a point won't save them. But if they are good in themselves, and if by a "point" you mean some truth about the real world which one can take out of the story, I'm not sure that I agree. At least, I think that looking for a "point" in that sense may prevent one sometimes from getting the real effect of the story in itself---like listening too hard for the words in singing which isn't meant to be listened to that way...I'm not sure at all about this, mind you..." which I thought was a brilliant description of why, sometimes, we prefer fiction to sermons. It's like art--- through it (whether literature, music, or visual) we understand things. But we can't separate those things from the art and make them into messages. This is coming from someone (me) who loves more than anything to find messages in art and literature. But why is the effect of a song different from its words considered on their own, and can fiction sometimes help us see God in ways theology might not? The interesting thing is that there are clearly Christian messages in Lewis' Narnia books. But I fell in love these books in fourth grade without a clue that there was anything symbolic about them. I just knew they were magical. At the end of the same letter, Lewis answers another of Phyllida's comments: "P.S. Of course you're right about the Narnian books being better than the tracts; at least, in the way a picture is better than a map." This comment reminded me too much of one that my friend Tony made the other day, protesting that the book we read for book club, Blue Like Jazz was, when it came down to it, just a "tract" (an evangelical pamphlet). However, I think I liked it for exactly the reason that it, like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, is not a tract but rather a presentation of the spiritual lived out in the earthy experiences of life. Perhaps Donald Miller was trying to propagate and convince readers of Christian truth, whereas Lewis was just presenting it artistically. Is there a difference between the two? As a believer, it seems there is a role for tract-like, almost technical teaching. It builds up the church. And yet lately, as I was discussing with a friend, I'm not often attracted to Christian teaching books/sermons like I used to be, something that has caused me a little worry about myself. But I tentatively concluded that I'm merely moving away from an "overspiritualizing" of everything and towards an understanding that if God is anything, he is incarnational, meaning he is present and here in the every day, that he is in us and among us---that is the whole point of Christmas. So instead of trying so hard to make him come here and be in everything I do, I'm realizing that he already did come and he already is here. "In him we live and move and have our being."