I’m not very good at remembering dates. Believe it or not, the truth is that John is usually the one who keeps track of all of our extended family’s birthdays and anniversarys. Perhaps it’s his love of history that has naturally brought this about. I’m more the fiction and poetry person of our twosome. My head tends to be in a cloud, while he is solidly and practically on the ground! So he reminded me the other day that it was Lewis’ birthday(November 29th). I couldn’t believe I had forgotten. It seriously is an important day to me, and I have enjoyed writing posts about Lewis in years past on his birthday. No one has had as profound or deep an influence on me as Lewis. I have read and reread most of the forty something books he wrote. In fact, I am always in the midst of rereading Lewis. Right now I am enjoying Mere Christianity for the umpteenth time. I love the straightforward and logical, yet beautiful way he presents orthodox Christianity. As in all of his books, Lewis appeals to my head and my heart, my mind and my imagination; truth wrapped in beauty. Recently, I finished An Experiment in Criticism. I thought it would be a fitting tribute to Lewis to share a quotation from it:
“What is the good of reading what anyone writes is very like the question what is the good of listening to what anyone says? Unless you contain in yourself sources that can supply all the information, entertainment, advice, rebuke, and merriment you want, the answer is obvious. And if it is worth while listening or reading at all, it is often worth doing so attentively…A work of literary art can be considered in two lights. It both means and is. It is both Logos(something said) and Poiema(something made). As logos it tells a story, or expresses an emotion, or exhorts or pleads, or describes, or rebukes, or excites laughter. As Poiema by its aural beauties and also by the contrast and the unified multiplicity of its sucessive parts it is objet d’ art, a thing shaped so as to give great satisfaction.”
Happy belated birthday, Lewis! You are worth reading and reading attentively. And when I read you, you not only tell me many things, but you tell them in the most satisfying way. Thank you.
Jess
John
