So I was thinking the other day, as I had my 4th or 5th cup of coffee (it was nearly 8:00 in the morning, after all), “Gee, how many cups of coffee would it take before I just keeled over dead?”
I’m sure you’ve all wondered the same thing at one time or another. It was probably on a Monday, wasn’t it? Well, thanks to the miracle of the World Wibe Wed of Internetted ‘Puters, you need wonder no longer:
The great man himself, Clive Staples Lewis, was born this day in 1898.
He is about to undergo a bit of a revival, what with the upcoming release of the movie version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, but to many, his works have never gone out of style. To me, certainly, he has been a warm fire on a many a cold night in the wilderness. I’ve read the Narnia series probably half-a-dozen times in my life, most recently last week. I’ll never get sick of them. They tell a great story, full of courage, honor, love, and redemption. It’s like a Johnny Cash song in prose form. The Great Divorce is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and as soon as I can find my copy, I’m going to read it again (if any of you know where I put it, leave a message). His theological works are accessible and pleasant to read (not many works of theology, by any writer, have ever been described thusly). And, most people aren’t aware, but he wrote a nifty little science fiction trilogy that is worth anyone’s time.
So, in lieu of a cake, I present to you a passage from The Silver Chair (the 6th book in the Narnia series):
“If you’re thirsty, you may drink.”
For a second she stared here and there, wondering who had spoken. Then the voice said again, “If you are thirsty, come and drink, ” and of course she remembered what Scrubb had said about animals talking in that other world, and realized that it was the lion speaking. Anyway, she had seen its lips move this time, and the voice was not like a man’s. It was deeper, wilder, and stronger; a sort of heavy, golden voice. It did not make her any less frightened than she had been before, but it made her frightened in rather a different way.
“Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion.
“I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill.
“Then drink,” said the Lion
“May I — could I — would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill.
The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.
The delicious rippling noise of the stream was making her nearly frantic.
“Will you promise not to — do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill.
“I make no promise,” said the Lion.
Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.
“Do you eat girls?”
“I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emporers, cities and realms,” said the Lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.
“I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill.
“Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion.
“Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.”
“There is no other stream,” said the Lion.
“Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than . . . to live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, ‘Son, thou art welcome.’ But I said, ‘Alas Lord I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash.’ He answered, ‘Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me.’ Then by reason of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, ‘Lord, is it then true . . . that thou and Tash are one?’ The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, ‘It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites — I take to me the services which thou hast done for him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him . . . ‘Dost thou understand, child?’ I said, ‘Lord, thou knowest how much I understand.’ But I also said (for the truth constrained me), ‘Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days.’ ‘Beloved,’ said the Glorious One, ‘unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.’
(C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle, 1956)
Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel. She knows that it is given by Him who enlightens all men so that they may finally have life.
(Lumen Gentium, 1964}
I posted this in a comment box over at Southern Appeal, and thought it was such a good idea it deserved its own post here at the Town. I think I may have blogged on this before, but it bears repeating.
This country needs its own equivalent of Prime Minister’s Questions. Now.
First off, if you’re not familiar with the concept, go to this site and check it out. It’s great government and great television.
The British version is very fiery, very intense, but also very dignified. For the ‘Merican version, we’re going to need to kick it up a notch or two.
My suggestions:
Play-by-play and Color Commentary. I suggest either Al Michaels and John Madden, or J.R. Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler.
Cheerleaders. This is America, after all.
Introductions with pyrotechnics. “And now, 6 foot 2, 250 pounds, from Wheaton College, the Gremlin of the gavel, Speaker of the House Dennnnnnis HAAAAAAAAAAAAAASTERRRRRRRRRT!!!!
One word: Telestrator.
What am I leaving out?
Of all the many QOTD I’ve put in this space, this one absolutely blows me away like none other:
“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
– G.K. Chesterton
Today is the birthday of the United States Marine Corps.
So I send special DaveTown greetings to my favorite Marines:
Soos: My hero, my role model, my great friend.
Skylar: freshly graduated from Boot Camp in San Diego!
Jonathan Lee: I don’t know him personally, but I admire him nonetheless.
Also, pray for the repose of the souls of all those gallant Marines who have died in the defense of our country.
If you have HBO, be sure to check out Unknown Soldier this month. It’s the story of a young man’s quest to get to know his father, a Marine who died in Viet Nam. It’s a sublime piece of film making.
When I was a kid, I had recurring nightmares about the world being plunged into a nuclear holocaust. If I had known this, I’m sure I would never have slept at all:
America’s gaggle of Minuteman long-range nuclear missiles went on line for the first time during the Cuban missile crisis in 1960. But the world was supposedly protected from mutual assured destruction by the Permissive Action Links (PALs) which required an 8-digit combination in order to launch. Robert McNamara, then the U.S. Secretary of Defense, personally oversaw the installation of these special locks to prevent any unauthorized nuclear missile launches. He considered the safeguards to be essential for strict central control and for preventing nuclear disaster. But what Secretary McNamara didn’t know is that from the very beginning, the Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha had decided that these locks might interfere with any wartime launch orders; so in order to circumvent this safeguard, they pre-set the launch code on all Minuteman silos to the same eight digits: 00000000.
Are you kidding me? According to the rest of the article, anyone who had enough clearance to get down in the silo had access to manuals that had the code printed in them!
Unbelievable. The article doesn’t mention it, but whoever countermanded Secretary McNamara’s orders should have been shot and then court-maritialed.
In that order.
From an AP story about professional football players:
“ . . . the two feuded throughout the summer, not speaking to each other for a prolonged period.”
If the Hatfield and McCoys had feuded like that, I guess a lot of bloodshed could’ve been avoided.