On the Common 139
How Big is the Frog?
Hello,
I was giving thanks for you last week. I looked at my task list for the day, and one item on the list was reading some beautiful children’s books and writing to you about them. What a fun little job I’ve made for myself. I’m so grateful to you for reading what I write here.
The Book Basket (the newest Christmas edition) will be published next Monday, and then I’ll see you after Thanksgiving.
The Part Where There’s an Essay: Lewis on Thankfulness
I won’t be with you next week. Preparation for Thanksgiving—not just the consumption of the meal—is a communal affair in the preparation in my house, as well. Every son and daughter is assigned a dish for which they are responsible. We all prepare ours as much as possible on Wednesday, so all we do on Thursday is heat everything up while the turkey cooks.
(Those of you who’ve been here a while know we will watch You’ve Got Mail that Wednesday night.)
Next Friday, November 29, is known as “Reading CS Lewis Day,” because it’s his birthday. Since the day coincides with Thanksgiving weekend here in the States, I thought it would be a natural help to hear what the man had to say about being thankful.
Sláinte!
[We] shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest. At best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable, but we shall not have found Him so, not have “tasted and seen.” Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are “patches of Godlight” in the woods of our experience. (Letters to Malcolm, 122)
Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead. (The Screwtape Letters, #15)
Gratitude exclaims, very properly, ‘How good of God to give me this.’ (Letters to Malcolm)
We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country. (Letters)
For the Anglophiles
Imelda Staunton is now Dame Imelda Staunton after receiving honors at Windsor last week.
(Click on that link if you also like reminding yourself that Carson the Butler is married to Professor Umbridge.)
Reads & Listens of the Week
Remembering Humility as a Virtue: Hannah Anderson, writing for The Dispatch faith newsletter, asks some questions about what role humility might play in mending our current political woes. “What this means practically is that your neighbor who voted differently than you may not have the power to destroy or save democracy as we’ve been told. Correspondingly, any pride you feel in what your own vote accomplished must be mitigated as well.”
Love of What is Timeless as a Response to Chaotic Times: Alan Noble. “What the Bible and literature and all great art can also do for us is cause us to attend to something with our imagination, something meaningful—which is exactly the opposite of what the political news fever demands of us.”
The guys at Overdue tried to talk through The Wind in the Willows. Hilarity ensued. Is the frog human-sized? If he isn’t, how does he drive a car?! I adore The Wind in the Willows, but this take with new eyes made me laugh out loud.
One sign you've encountered God is you walk with a limp, not a strut. Matt Smethurst
I needed this push to read Alan Noble's final entry in his series. Thank you. It has been such a beautiful reflection!