Thursday, March 05, 2009

Understanding, or, When Things Suddenly Fall Into Place

The Godfather is one of my biggest fans (he has to be...its in the job description) but even he couldn't contain his laughter when we were chatting earlier about Skegness (goodness knows why!) & I shared with him part of The Epic Tale Of Our Journey In The Big Red Machine. That tale in its entirety is to be kept for another time, but suffice to say, the bit he found amusing was where I had to be taught where Skegness was. When I was on my way there. Yes. Apparently its nowhere near Blackpool. In my defence, Geography has never been my strong point...

In an attempt to curb his laughter, I shared a few other examples of my slowness in understanding, in the hope that he would see that its a) not my fault I'm a bit dim and b) that its not that funny. Turns out a) it may or may not be my fault I'm a bit dim but that b) it certainly is that funny. So what if I grew up in a Christian home on a healthy diet of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe and it still took me 22 years to work out why its always winter and never Christmas?! Or that the phrase "no room to swing a cat" doesn't actually refer to felines?! Or being on the London Eye and realising (i.e. being told) that the pods rotate so they stay upright rather than going upside down at the top. Or...I think I might stop now**.

I had another such moment where everything falls into place this morning when I was reading. I have to admit, I've fallen prey to popularist culture (I know, so very rare for me!), and yesterday picked up a copy of The Shack, which is the latest Christian fad in popular literature. When it comes to "Christian novels" I am all sorts of a skeptic, and have resisted thus far, but I was bored, and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I'm only about halfway through and have yet to lose my skepticism. I did almost waver and give in this morning though when I read the following lines,

"Most birds were created to fly. Being grounded for them is a limitation within
their ability to fly, not the other way round...You, on the other hand, were created
to be loved. So for you, to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the
other way round....Living unloved is like clipping a bird's wings and removing its
ability to fly" The Shack by WM Paul Young

I know everyone blathers on about no-one loving you unless you love yourself, but I genuinely believe that unless you are loved, unless you experience what it is to be loved, to be wanted, to be needed, you can't fully understand what love is. And when you have it, everything does fall in to place and you realise that you can fly. Not that you ever couldn't, it just helps when you have someone believing in you.

Love, etc.
xx

** OK, so the London Eye thing was a bit dim, but the rest of them still stand.

4 comments:

LeLe said...

Phew! I thought I was the only one left who is skeptical about The Shack other than my husband. I just haven't picked it up to read it despite some of my closest friends raving about it. I just don't want to give in to the hype and have heard that there are some things in the book that are a bit heretical. I guess I should see for myself but I'm still avoiding it. I'd like to know your thoughts when you're finished.

Anonymous said...

If it makes you feel any better I had never thought about any of the things you mentioned when talking about being slow... the first two I'm still a little unsure on... two halves of the same brain and all that :p

TandN said...

We remain unconvinced about your stupidity re. swinging a cat. According to this site (and others we saw) the phrase probably refers to an actual cat:
http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2006/10/no-room-to-swing-cat.html
Anyway, since you believed the story about the whip, you may be able to use this as evidence in your case of dim-nity.

T&N :-P

Anonymous said...

I'm naturally a skeptic myself. I almost always avoid anything that resembles a fad and when I do embrace it, it is usually only to mock it and find all of its theological fallacies.

However, I read The Shack for almost the same reasons. I was on vacation and bored. Grant it, there are some theological fallacies in it, but the 20,000 ft view, the big picture, was surprisingly refreshing.

I hope you enjoy the book.