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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Better Things Part 2, AKA, Puddleglum's Save

Last night my son had a sleepover with his cousins and a friend. All four boys literally crashed in the living room for the night; I came down at 3 AM to find one sprawled on the couch, two in reclining chairs, and the fourth (who, by the way, is about 6'3") spread out on the living room floor. His long limbs were tangled up and his head was trying desperately to find comfort on a low-sitting massage chair. I took pity on the poor kid, and tried rousing him to come upstairs to sleep in our guest room. He politely begged off, stating that he was too tired to climb the stairs, even for better accommodations.

I found myself bowled over by the human condition. We sit around like people in Plato's Cave, enjoying our toys and trinkets, often oblivious to the fact that better things are ours for the taking. Or consider C. S. Lewis's The Silver Chair, in which the Lady of the Green Kirtle (AKA the Queen of Underland) almost succeeds in convincing the main characters that her dark dungeon-like world is really the only world, and Aslan's realm, just a fairy tale. Fortunately, their Eyeore-eque, Marsh-wiggle companion, Puddleglum (don't try to figure it out, just read the book), brings them to their senses with the following reality check:   

"Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things--trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia." (Lewis, C.S. The Silver Chair. Geoffrey Bles, 1953)

Like Lewis's well-intentioned protagonists, we have hopelessly short memories and minds that quickly fall prey to clever arguments with enticing words.That's why it's so important to ally ourselves with Puddleglum-type people who speak the truth, even when that truth seems ridiculous or onerous in light of our present reality.

I'll take a small serving of Puddleglum philosophy over a heaping helping of Underland hospitality any day of the week.


For more like this, check out: Morsels for Meditation...: Better Things

1 comment:

Michelle said...

It would seem, indeed, that a false hope is better than no hope at all. And our lives are better for it, for it changes our outlook...and the ramifications of that are far-reaching.

And our Hope is a Real Hope. Thanks be to God.