I’ve been reading/ listening to CS Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. The other day another passage struck me as “so true.” In this letter, Screwtape discussed how we humans are “completely fogged about the meaning of the word ‘real.’” which now has two almost opposite meanings: 1) the facts of the situation, and 2) one’s emotional response to the situation.
So we “tell each other of some great spiritual experience, ‘all that really happened was that [we] heard some music in a nicely lighted building.’ … On the other hand, [we'll] say, ‘It’s all very well discussing that high dive as you sit there in an armchair, but wait till you’re up there and see what it’s really like.’ [the tendency is] in all experiences that can make [us] happier or better, only the physical facts are real, while in all experiences which can discourage or corrupt, the spiritual (emotional) elements are the main reality, and to ignore them is to be escapist. Thus in birth, the blood and pain are real, the rejoicing is just a subjective point of view; in death, the terror and ugliness reveal what death really means.”
It got me thinking, wondering how to talk about reality. Both aspects, the facts and the feelings, make up the experience of a situation for us. In most cases, both are part of the reality of any situation. As one who wants to be in tune with reality and with the Real One, I want and need to be aware of both in my own story, and to discount neither when others tell their story.
Reference: In the linked copy from The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics, on Google Book Search, see letter #30, on p. 185-186.