-
Is the Future Worth Fighting For?
Even though the movie Star Wars, A New Hope begins with the words, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” it tells a “future” space-age story about the forces of evil that seek total annihilation of inhabitants of all planets in order for the Empire to gain utmost supremacy and control the universe. “The Force” for good resides in and on the side of those who combat this enemy. In a scene from Star Wars, Princess Leia says to Luke, “Your friend is quite the mercenary. I wonder if he cares about anything … or anybody.” Luke says, “I care.” “I care” is the opposite of indifference.…
-
The Life Is in the Book: Characters Have a Life of Their Own
Last week, I closed the book Tom Lake, at the part where the character Peter Drake is introduced. I already know what happens because I listened to the book on Audible, read by Meryl Streep. Fantastic reader, by the way. After turning out the light, I went from sleepy to wide awake as I started trying to “cast” the characters in this book for a movie. Who could play Peter Drake? Tom Cruise is too short and Tom Hanks isn’t handsome (though he has throughout his career portrayed endearing characters). I thought of them first because they both have dark hair, yet knowing they are too old now to portray…
-
Develop Discernment by Reading
C.S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters how devils would plot strategies against a newly converted Christian: simply keep him from reading. Or at least keep him from reading and learning things written in the past. “Great scholars are now as little nourished by the past as the most ignorant mechanic who holds that ‘history is bunk.’ . . . And since we cannot deceive the whole human race all the time, it is most important thus to cut every generation off from all others.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters Reading Between the Generations Is it enough to simply read old books, as if referencing and then checking off a…
-
When I Am Afraid, Who or What Do I Trust?
If God would concede to me His omnipotence for twenty-four hours, you would see how many changes I would make in the world. But if He gave me His wisdom too, I would leave things as they are. J.M.L. Monsabre, 19th century French Dominican How Stories Expand Our Perspective on Life Years ago, a woman I met at a weekend retreat introduced herself by telling of the night before her four-year old daughter faced surgery for leukemia. Holding her mother’s hand before being wheeled into the operating room, the little girl asked, “How long is soon?” The woman said, “I hesitated, not knowing how to answer.” “Soon . . . not…
-
Cataracts and How What You Can’t See Can Hurt You
History Matters and Here’s Why “The scholar [who has intimate knowledge of the past] has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.” –C. S. Lewis, “Learning in War-Time,” in The Weight of Glory: And Other Addresses (New York: HarperCollins, 1949/2001 When do you know you can’t see well? When my husband told me that he would have to wear a patch over his eye after having a cataract removed, I pictured he would exit the surgical clinic looking like Marshall Rooster Cogburn in the movie True Grit, wearing a black…
-
A Few of My Favorite Books
The prompt from StoryWorth, a gift my daughter gave me for Christmas, led me to consider what otherwise I would have avoided even thinking about. “What are your favorite books?” This challenge to select from beaucoup books I have read forced me to ignore all but the top titles that came to mind without having to browse my bookshelves. To be honest, my favorite book is the book I am currently reading or else I would lay that book aside in favor of one I have read and loved. Yet there are so many books to read, too many to count in fact, and I always tell people that a…
