Happy Birthday Jack

our beloved friend, author and brother-in-Christ, C. S. Lewis.

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November 29, 1898 - November 22, 1963

endlessly quotable,

tremendously insightful,

Known in our home not only for launching the Dawn Treader and such, but for so often putting into words something dear to our hearts, but difficult to express.  He is quoted and referenced a great deal here, not only for his brilliant mind and writings, but also for his appreciation of the cosy pleasures of life; such as Tea, reading, and solitude.  Here is a delightful quote of his on just such a subject.

"For if I could please myself…I would choose always to breakfast at exactly eight and to be at my desk by nine, there to read or write till one. If a cup of good tea or coffee could be brought me about eleven, so much the better. A step or so out of doors for a pint of beer would not do quite so well; for a man does not want to drink alone and if you meet a friend in the taproom the break is likely to be extended beyond its ten minutes. At one precisely lunch should be on the table; and by two at the latest I would be on the road. Not, except at rare intervals, with a friend. Walking and talking are two very great pleasures, but it is a mistake to combine them.
The return from the walk, and the arrival of tea, should be exactly coincident, and not later than a quarter past four. Tea should be taken in solitude…for eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably. At five a man should be at work again, and at it till seven. Then, at the evening meal and after, comes the time for talk, or failing that, for lighter reading; and unless you are making a night of it with your cronies, there is no reasons why you should ever be in bed later than eleven. But when is a man to write his letters? You forget that I am describing the happy life I led with Kirk or the ideal life I would live now if I could. And it is an essential of the happy life that a man would have almost no mail and never dread the postman’s knock.
Such is my ideal, and such the (almost) was the reality of “settled, calm, Epicurean life.” It is no doubt for my own good that I have been so generally prevented from leading it, for it is a life almost entirely selfish."
-C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, p.143