Literary Divings

These days I stay at work after I clock out to stay in the working zone and use the energy that I've developed over my busy hours. And I like the atmosphere. The regulars are all known to me, and even those I am less familiar with I feel a human connection to because of their patronage. Strangers and acquaintances are likely to stop and inquire what I'm studying, all spread out across tables, and friends are likely to stop for conversation. Rarely is the distraction too hard on concentration, so I enjoy stopping to talk. It is stimulating, often encouraging. 

The other day a man, pausing near my table, noticed my copy of Orthodoxy by G.K.Chesterton, and asked if I was a fan. When I said I was, he asked if I ever attended the Chesterton Society meetings, or if I knew they existed. I said it sounded familiar, but I had never gone. He told me about it; and when he found out that my studying was voluntary and not assigned for school, he said, then I should definitely check out the Chesterton Society. I found that delightful and encouraging somehow.

Above is pictured my current stack of reads. I've just finished Death by Living, and am working my way through the others. Orthodoxy, as well as DbL, are rereads. The Woman Who Smashed Codes is a new non-fiction book, and delightful so far. As I read, and listen to lectures on C.S. Lewis and writing, (and read about the reformers, look up music and topics that I've thought of between times)... I take notes, and copy down quotes, doodle, list, and journal. Here are some excerpts from that notebook.

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"No man who values originality will ever be original. But try to tell the truth as you see it, try to do any bit of work as well as it can be done for the work's sake, and what men call originality will come unsought." CSL

"You cannot produce rational intuition by argument, because argument depends upon rational intuition." CSL

"Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remain." CSL

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." -Jesus

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." -Jesus

"And the curious disappearance of satire from our literature is an instance of the fierce things fading for want of any principle to be fierce about." GKC

"These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water." GKC

"Meaning is the antecedent condition to both truth and falsehood." lecture by Michael Ward

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." -Aristotle

"It is very hard for a man to defend anything of which he is entirely convinced... that very multiplicity of proof which ought to make reply overwhelming makes reply impossible." GKC

"In life and art both, as it seems to me, we are always trying to catch in our net of successive moments something that is not successive." CSL

"A willingness to act when the way forward is unclear and the result is definitely uncertain." lecture by David M Whalen

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Here's a link to a brilliant article on a female theologian from the sixteenth century. Such an inspiration!