Volume X, Issue XVII, Rainy Overlook. Photo by Bob Kirchman
Vision: the art of seeing things invisible."
-- Jonathan Swift,
Irish Poet and Satirist
Photo by Bob Kirchman
As another horrific event played out in San Bernardino, California, the media were quick to scold those leaders who offered 'prayers for the victims.' "G-d isn't Fixing This" [click to read] blares the New York Daily News. Set aside the obvious political agendas to be advanced and the desire to show certain people as 'insincere,' and you will see the larger problem. We have lost the language of the larger unseen realities that sustain us. We can access more news sources than ever before but we hear more: "This happened, this happened..." and although we are quickly told what it "means" by the keepers of information, we are denied the greater dialogue... that which would lead us to see that G-d INDEED moves through human history! [1.] [2.]
We are told by the keepers of information that our greater beliefs are relatively unimportant. They are "all the same..." but use that logic to say that Mother Theresa's Faith and that of the Mumbai terrorists are "all the same," and you will stumble upon the inconvenient truth that things mean something in and of themselves, far beyond our stated opinions of them. A dialogue based only on the recitation of facts may indeed limit us in our quest for deeper truth, but I would suggest that Swift's fellow Irishman, C. S. Lewis, offers us the means and the language to serve us in the deeper quest.
Lewis tells us of his childhood, where he abandoned Faith, largely because his Classical school educators told him: "Christianity is true. The myths you are reading are false." Such black and white thinking led Lewis to conclude, as many do today, that truth only lies in the telling of 'facts.' But Lewis went on to study Medieval literature and became friends with men like J. R. R. Tolkien, who helped him to see that the myths, far from being untrue, delve into the realm of imagination to give us a far richer and broader picture of the human experience! Inspired by Tolkien, Lewis embraced Faith and became one of the greatest apologists for Christianity.
Seeing now that myths and stories conveyed powerful truth, even if it was incomplete or missed the mark (as in the case of those Classical and Pagan ones), Lewis became a great storyteller in his own right. In works like Mere Christianity, he skillfully uses metaphor to help us grasp the unseen treasures. In stories such as the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy, he gives us a treasury of story in which reside the great truths of our Faith.
Photo by Bob Kirchman
Thru Hikers and Trail Magic
Meet Forrest and Stephanie Greer, Appalachian Trail thru hikers who hail from Homer Alaska.
I met them coming back off of the Skyline Drive after a very wet trip to the mountains. I was enjoying the solitude and the wet wonder and frankly did not expect to see thru hikers. Forrest and Stephanie are bush pilots. They fly float planes line the Beaver and they are hiking now because the tourist season is through. They started in Maine and are hiking South, unlike most thru hikers who start at Springer Mountain, Georgia.
Standing at the Skyline Drive entrance at Rockfish Gap, the couple was looking for a ride to Waynesboro, where they planned to re-provision themselves. I was delighted to learn that they were from Homer, and I am sure they were surprised when I started asking them if they knew friends of mine who had moved to Homer! They didn't know them, but said that since Homer is not that big, they probably had seen them in town.
They were familiar with Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, so we had a good laugh as we remembered the particular episode in that book which happened in Waynesboro.
Special Book Section
Several months ago we began the serial presentation of "Pontifus, The Bridge Builder's Tale in Three Parts." [3.] The entire work may be found Here [click to read].