Just the kind of post I needed after a very full day (one in which my husband is away on business). I thank you for the levity . . . and the smile. ; D
Odd, I JUST read that yesterday in Orthodoxy!! I'm re-reading it this week for fun. That quote is from the "The Eternal Revolution" chapter. I really like the next section (I skip a few sentences here and there in my quote):
Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly. This has been always the instinct of Christendom, and especially the instinct of Christian art . . . Remember how the most earnest medieval art was full of light and fluttering draperies, of quick and capering feet . . . . in the old Christian pictures the sky over every figure is like a blue or gold parachute. Every figure seems ready to fly up and float about in the heavens. The tattered cloak of the beggar will bear him up like the rayed plumes of the angels. But the kings in their heavy gold and the proud in their robes of purple will all of their nature sink downwards, for pride cannot rise to levity or levitation. Pride is the downward drag of all things into an easy solemnity. One "settles down" into a sort of selfish seriousness; but one has to rise to a gay self-forgetfulness . . . Seriousness is not a virtue. It would be a heresy, but a much more sensible heresy to say that seriousness is a vice. it is really a natural trend or lapse into taking one's self gravely, because it is the easiest thing to do. It is much easier to write a good Times leading article than a good joke in Punch. For solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity.
"re-reading it just for fun this week"!! Wow, I keep thinking I should re-read it too, but don't know if I could do it in a week. My copy is so marked up too. Visual image me even drew pictures all over mine. I love GK Chesterton's thoughts - a genius with a sense of humor. Maybe I'll start reading it (after I finish my re-reading of the last 2/3 of The Shack).
3 comments:
Just the kind of post I needed after a very full day (one in which my husband is away on business). I thank you for the levity . . . and the smile. ; D
Now I'm off to collapse.
Odd, I JUST read that yesterday in Orthodoxy!! I'm re-reading it this week for fun. That quote is from the "The Eternal Revolution" chapter. I really like the next section (I skip a few sentences here and there in my quote):
Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly. This has been always the instinct of Christendom, and especially the instinct of Christian art . . . Remember how the most earnest medieval art was full of light and fluttering draperies, of quick and capering feet . . . . in the old Christian pictures the sky over every figure is like a blue or gold parachute. Every figure seems ready to fly up and float about in the heavens. The tattered cloak of the beggar will bear him up like the rayed plumes of the angels. But the kings in their heavy gold and the proud in their robes of purple will all of their nature sink downwards, for pride cannot rise to levity or levitation. Pride is the downward drag of all things into an easy solemnity. One "settles down" into a sort of selfish seriousness; but one has to rise to a gay self-forgetfulness . . . Seriousness is not a virtue. It would be a heresy, but a much more sensible heresy to say that seriousness is a vice. it is really a natural trend or lapse into taking one's self gravely, because it is the easiest thing to do. It is much easier to write a good Times leading article than a good joke in Punch. For solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity.
"re-reading it just for fun this week"!! Wow, I keep thinking I should re-read it too, but don't know if I could do it in a week. My copy is so marked up too. Visual image me even drew pictures all over mine. I love GK Chesterton's thoughts - a genius with a sense of humor. Maybe I'll start reading it (after I finish my re-reading of the last 2/3 of The Shack).
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