1. My father grew up as a farmer and became a salesman. He was a brilliant character actor and storyteller who aspired to be a person of the arts. My mother divorced him when he went to prison for molesting little girls. She eventually remarried a decent enough man who didn’t much care for her children. He was a businessman who eventually became CEO of a mutual fund. Those bare facts are the underground river in all my development, and likely influenced even my recent division of the nation into various tribes, each of which sees life quite differently (Arts & Humanities, Science & Technology, Business, Government & Union, God & Country are some primary American tribes)
2. I was also a character actor when I was young. Jacques Roux, the insane priest in "Marat-Sade," Nana the dog in "Peter Pan," and a host of other drunks, quacks, and clowns. I seemed to end up on the floor a lot. I never got to kiss the girl.
3. I met my wife on the first day of classes freshman year at William and Mary in 1971, though we did not start dating for several years. We discussed possible names for children on our second date. With all those ridiculously romantic Williamsburg backdrops available, I was nonetheless stupid enough to propose to her in my dorm room – bed unmade, laundry scattered on the floor. When my oldest son visited W&M he agreed that his dad had been a complete loser in this regard. When he proposed to Heidi, he was brilliant.
4. I love maps – could look at them for hours. I absorb them and carry them around in my head, which frustrates me when my driving navigators are looking at another part of the map – fifty miles ahead or behind what I am talking about now, and telling me I’ve got it wrong. My children all remember at least one time when I corrected them but they turned out right. They lie. They were looking at slightly different parts of the map and wouldn’t listen.
5. It puzzles me that I mention CS Lewis so little on this site. I am unable to get through any discussion about the faith without referencing him at least once, yet he barely comes up here. I have been at times a Lewis fanatic and he is never very far from my thoughts.
6 comments:
As a fellow C.S. Lewis fanatic, who's read "Mere Christianity" (the greatest explanation of the Christian faith, in my opinion, outside the Bible) probably hundreds of times and has not one, but two copies of "The Abolition of Man," I'd love to see more blogging on Lewis.
I actually have a road-show adult Sunday School that lasts 5-8 weeks that I've done several times. Maybe I'll put that into bloggish form somehow.
Hope the tag wasn't too painful, and yeah... C.S. Lewis is the man.
We have a monthly C.S. Lewis discussion group once a month at our home. My best beloved prints up a years schedule and hands it out in January. This year we alternate one of the Chronicles with one of the philosophy books.
Every so often the Discovery Institute in Seattle puts on a C.S. Lewis seminar.
I love maps too, though I'm a fan of the antique. I have a full sized world atlas from the 1870's.
I hope that I can digitally shoot it an post it to Flickr this Spring.
I'll let you know...
Ahh Lewis! That reminds me...at Grove City I had the chance to hear one of the foremost scholars on Lewis speak at a dinner. It was just after he had made the discovery of the links between the Narnia books and the medieval astrological planets. It was really fascinating. I wish I knew where he had published it all...I'd love to read through it again.
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