For Consolation In Dark Hours - Tumblr Posts
I recently reread Perelandra and it hit me hard how the Un-Man's strategy to lead the Green Lady into sin was to cultivate in her: "the faintest touch of theatricality ... a self-admiring inclination to seize a grand role in the drama of her world". He tried to get her to tell herself a story where she, not Maleldil, was at the heart – a story centered on her beauty, her virtues, her heroism. If he could get her to tell herself that kind of story, he could ensnare her imagination, and once her imagination was twisted her will was not far behind. He tempted her to sin by tempting her to see herself as a tragic hero.
Lewis identified a way that story-lovers (like him, like I) can stumble. We start to think the great heroes of stories get there by thinking of themselves as heroes and acting accordingly. But the real heroes in stories don't see themselves as the center of the narrative (if they do, they're often deeply flawed). They embody that Tolkien quote: "It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till." They quietly, faithfully, and humbly do the work they're called to do, without any delusions of grandeur.
One day, if we live in the Lord, our stories will be revealed to have eternal weight and mythic grandeur. We will see each other as the immortals we always have been. But – and here's the paradox – we'll never get that way by setting out to be glorious heroes. I've known people convinced the stories revolves around them. Though I hate to say it, those people seem to live petty, banal lives.
No, the only way to be exalted is to humble ourselves. The only way to live out a myth is to live an ordinary, faithful life. If we orbit our lives around Christ, that legendary hero, he draws us into his myth and transforms the mundane details of our lives into the stuff of songs and ballads.
And. I don't know. I think it's important that the Un-Man wanted the Green Lady to think of ourself not just as a hero, but as a tragic hero. There's ample room for mourning and weeping in this story of ours. But I think insisting that our lives are ultimately a tragedy, that everything is hopeless, that our disappointment gets to tell the truth about reality, can be a kind of rebellion. Pain has a way of closing our minds so we're convinced that our present feelings get to have the final word on the narrative. Holding out for eucatastrophe is an act of trust that the world is so much bigger than our problems. Somehow, God is grand and glorious enough that even our deepest tragedies can be enfolded into a comedy that ends with our joy and his glory.
Friends, we are not tragic heroes. The world doesn't revolve around us. The joy to come far outweighs our present sorrow. Christ is the hero and he has conquered death. And yet, take heart – the more we step into that truth, the more our ordinary lives become the stuff of legend.
Whitetip reef shark (Triaenodon obesus)
I made a little guy
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Update: his name is Scorching Ray and he has a sister named Burning Gaze!
See the family:
The Dragon Garden
Scorching Ray | Burning Gaze | Calm Air | Dancing Lights | Tireless Pursuit (soon) | ???
is this the boy with brown eyes you all have been talking about
@jumpde requested a video of the doves and I am happy to oblige. 😄 I hope you enjoy this vid of Puddleglum doing his Sailboat Transformer impression (aka taking a bath)!
Being in a group chat with a bunch of mentally ill girls who suck at taking care of ourselves is really funny. We’ll constantly be giving each other advice like “hey you should probably eat something” “have you taken your meds today?” “if you’re not feeling well maybe you should get some sleep” and stuff like that and then none of us have the self awareness and self respect to take the advice we give each other until we we hear it from someone else
