Keeping a Book of Centuries
  • welcome
    • About the Book of Centuries
  • in my notebook...
  • shop
  • conversation
    • presentations
  • One Hundred Days
    • Original Invitation

Almost...again

2/20/2023

2 Comments

 
As we get ready to embark on another One Hundred Days of Keeping this passage seems a propos.  

“Do it again” by G.K. Chesterton

“All the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rests ultimately upon one assumption; a false assumption. It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork.

People feel that if the universe was personal it would vary; if the sun were alive it would dance. This is a fallacy even in relation to known fact.

For the variation in human affairs is generally brought into them, not by life, but by death; by the dying down or breaking off of their strength or desire.

A man varies his movements because of some slight element of failure or fatigue. He gets into an omnibus because he is tired of walking; or he walks because he is tired of sitting still.

But if his life and joy were so gigantic that he never tired of going to Islington, he might go to Islington as regularly as the Thames goes to Sheerness.

The very speed and ecstasy of his life would have the stillness of death. The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction.

Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life.

The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life.

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.

But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon.

It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.

It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical ENCORE.”

–G.K. Chesterton, “The Ethics of Elfland,” Orthodoxy (The Christian Heritage Series; Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 1908/2020), 61.  

What do you say? Are you up for  Mason's revolutionary stance against a "towering materialism," defining a "Personal universe," "gigantic life and joy," as we make our way toward the enthusiasm of childhood?    Welcome (back?) to the tribe of the ENCORE.  (I will be drawing a daisy around each page number this year.)  

2 Comments
Amanda R Deter
2/21/2023 07:40:15 am

Oh what a beautiful reminder! "His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life." Yes. And I am longing to fill my Book of Centuries for the next 100 days. Thank you for holding this habit for me and my community. Much love and gratitude.

Reply
Laurie
2/22/2023 10:32:11 am

Such a happy habit to hold! Welcome back intrepid teacher. xo

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    "Thus, I propose that the middle of February remind CM admirers
    ​everywhere to prepare to celebrate "the science of relations" with

    ​One Hundred Days of Keeping -- notebooks that is." 
    ​

    Laurie Bestvater

    Picture
    One Hundred Days
    Then swing your window open,
    the one with the fresh air
    and good eastern light,

    and watch for wings, edges,
    new beginnings.

     Monique Duval

    Categories

    All
    2021
    2022
    2023
    Before We Begin

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • welcome
    • About the Book of Centuries
  • in my notebook...
  • shop
  • conversation
    • presentations
  • One Hundred Days
    • Original Invitation