A mentor of mine has strongly encouraged me to spend time reading C. S. Lewis to broaden my horizons. For most of the last decade my reading has predominately focused on grammar and linguistics, to the exclusion of most everything else. This has not been all bad, but there is indeed room for greater balance, lest I become more of a dull boy than I already am. I am currently working my way through Surprised by Joy. There are some connections that I knew of, like the fact that I attended boarding school, but only in the latter years of high school. There are some things that I would give my eye teeth to do, like spend more than a day at Oxford’s Bodleian Library. yes, I have sworn the oath and read in the Radcliffe Camera.

Then there are the connections that I had not expected. In the first chapter I came across an very well-written anecdote that reminded me of some of my own “finer moments” as my mom used to call them. The full context can be read here:

Lewis tent 1

Lewis tent 2

I had a teacher that would make us laugh, but never my dad. He knew how to interrogate, asking questions that worked you into a corner. I felt like he would have me hang myself verbally, handing me the rope. I would answer the first question by uncoiling the rope, the second my tying the noose, the third by throwing the rope over a branch, and so on. He was very good at what he did, and I suppose this was the beginning of my research training, learning how to ask the right questions.

I never disassembled a ladder, but I do recall receiving a miniature picnic table one year for my birthday, probably in April of my 5th year. Some time shortly after that, so I am told, I recognized its great potential to be converted into a tree fort. I dutifully disassembled the components and reassembled them among three trees in the green space behind our house in Springfield, VA. My folks worked hard to be impressed, but I think they were thinking that it was an expensive way to buy lumber.