As in the time of Nehemiah (Chap 4), when the rebuilders of the wall carried both a trowel and a sword, Chesterton tells us that we are in such an age today. We need the sword - which he identifies doubly with both Reason and The Word - to defend the builders in their task. Yet one cannot build anything with a sword. It takes the humble trowel to do that.
The point of loving your enemies is not to defeat them but to convert them. You want them to betray their side and come to yours. Chesterton, beloved by both George Bernard Shaw and HG Wells, exemplifies this as well as anyone in the 20th C.
When GKC was asked what he thought of Wells giving up writing science fiction in order to write history and socialist tracts, he thought that "I fear he has traded his birthright for a pot of message."
On the way to his wedding, Chesterton bought a glass of milk in honor of his mother now that he was being transferred to the care of another woman, and a gun because now he had a bride to protect, even though he had no desire to protect himself.
Grim, I thought that if your motorcycle travels ever took you to any of these places, coming up noisily with braided beard might be a destabilising but ultimately useful moment at any of the Chesterton Academies. Especially if you were brought in as a sub by someone who was in on the game and marched to the front of the class. It looks like there are over 50 now.
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It says there's one in Knoxville, the city of my parents' birth; and Atlanta, the city of mine. Perhaps.
Please let at least one person know in advance. Trust me on this.
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