There, and Back Again
Well, I'm back. The illnesses and joyful meetings of my Colombian experience I will not yet share with you. But I still have a card in my passport wallet which reads "Be sure to drink the water"...I think it was given me by you, Kristen, wasn't it? Maybe before my trip to Mexico senior year?
But as to my query from before, I think you both are right--there is a balance, and that balance must be the fullest reality of both. I have been reading Lewis' "Pilgrim's Regress" recently, which I'd never read before, and on the plane today came upon young John's discussion with Old Man History. Really good though not perfect, but in the allegory there are Shepherds who know the Landlord's Rules, and there are Pagans who only know these Images which the Landlord has given them--Images enough to drive them toward desire of Him and His goodness, it seems. In the story, both are part of the same reality, and History tells how the Shepherds (who are not necessarily Christian pastors, only virtue-loving men who know the right actions their Maker demands) and Pagans are both half-men of a whole: the whole man has both desire and intensity in his experiences and also the full knowledge of His ways and commands. I thought it interesting.
I sleep now. (I hope.)
But as to my query from before, I think you both are right--there is a balance, and that balance must be the fullest reality of both. I have been reading Lewis' "Pilgrim's Regress" recently, which I'd never read before, and on the plane today came upon young John's discussion with Old Man History. Really good though not perfect, but in the allegory there are Shepherds who know the Landlord's Rules, and there are Pagans who only know these Images which the Landlord has given them--Images enough to drive them toward desire of Him and His goodness, it seems. In the story, both are part of the same reality, and History tells how the Shepherds (who are not necessarily Christian pastors, only virtue-loving men who know the right actions their Maker demands) and Pagans are both half-men of a whole: the whole man has both desire and intensity in his experiences and also the full knowledge of His ways and commands. I thought it interesting.
I sleep now. (I hope.)
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