Chronicles Thoughts

I thought tonight I'd write some thoughts about the Chronicles books before I re-read them for the book club meeting. I forget a LOT; it's one of the reasons re-reading is so enjoyable to me. But since this book club is about memorable books, I decided to write some of the things I remember.

I wrote already in an older blog about the way it helps me to think of Aslan to get the feeling of closeness and friendship combined with the awesome-ness of God. Another memory of Aslan that I like is where Lucy floats on Aslan's breath. I can't remember what book it was in but Aslan gets Lucy to a different place by lifting her with his breath. She is able to lie back and float on the current. I like the imagery -- floating on God's breath the way you float on water, the way you float on God's love, the way God's love supports you, lifts you up, moves you.

I love the lamppost in Chronicles. My friends Luke & Jan Seerveld have a lamppost in their front yard. I'd like to have one in mine someday. It's just cool.

Some of my favorite memories of the Chronicles are the scenes in The Last Battle. I think often of the soldier who worshiped "Tash" (Was that the other god's name? Can't remember that either, pathetic) and Aslan forgave him after he came to the new world. Aslan said something about how the soldier was somehow mistaken in the god he served; he was actually worshiping Aslan.

Another scene from The Last Battle that often comes to my mind is the part where a bunch of people ended up in a circle not seeing the beauty around them, and eating the food in the new world but thinking it tasted like straw or something bad. This is kind of the "hell" they're in, where they're not able to be with Aslan, to enjoy the new world. But they're not gnashing their teeth writhing in fire and brimstone for eternity.

Lots of small thoughts or images come to mind. I love the tender friendship between Tumnus and Lucy. I often wondered what Turkish Delight was and only saw it for the first time around a year ago. It's kind of like a soft jelly bean in a square shape covered with powdered sugar. When we played "freeze tag" when I was a kid it made me think of all the statues in the queen's palace. I like the story of creation in one of the books where for a certain period of time while the earth was new, everything that fell in the ground grew. So some coins grew into a kind of "money tree" with fruit that looked kind of coin-like. I often think of that when I hear the song "Morning Has Broken".

I like the image of going to heaven and meeting a God like Aslan. I know I'll be ashamed of the many things I've done or not done that were wrong but I imagine God seeing my heart, forgiving me and loving me anyway. In the books he sometimes licks a person with his rough tongue. I hate it when a dog licks me but I like the image the way Lewis writes it. And I think in at least one instance Aslan puts his forehead against a character's forehead. That's such a loving gesture. I do it sometimes with my kids.

So, those are some thoughts.

The Significant Books Club Begins!

So, it's been a LONG time since I've blogged. Didn't work out quite so well as I'd hoped. But my sister Jan had a good idea. She suggested I blog about the books I'm doing with my new book club. I decided to do that, and to also just blog about the group itself.

When our church's minister, Brad Smith, said that the church was going to start an effort to begin small groups, I talked to him about the thinking I'd done regarding starting a book club. As I said at the beginning of this blog, I'd been thinking for quite some time that it'd be fun to have a book club where we discussed books that had changed peoples' thinking or maybe even their lives. I asked if that would "count" as a small group. He welcomed the idea and I decided to go for it.

One of the things I'd kind of struggled with, and a reason I'd hesitated to begin the book club, was because I wasn't sure if I should just ask people at church, or perhaps friends, or if I should try to use it as some kind of outreach. Finally, I decided that it was fine to invite the church members as a part of the small group effort and just see how it goes. I hope it'll grow.

I was very happy at the response. 10 people signed up! One more is thinking about it. It's terrific. I'm really looking forward to beginning. I created a Google group for our club (no surprise!) and for lack of anything better I called it "Significant Books Club". I didn't want to call it "Special" and it was too long to call it Books-That-Changed-My-Life-Or-Thinking-Or-At-Least-Challenged-My-Thinking. :)

Our first meeting is scheduled for March 15th. A couple people can't make it but I'm sure we'll still have a good time. If it's a small enough group, we can meet in our library, the great previous bedroom that Randy made into such a beautiful little library.

For our first book, I chose two, the first and last books of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. It'll be fun to hear what others choose as books that have affected them. Can't wait to start!