C.S. Lewis happens to be my favorite author, and The Silver Chair happens to be one of my all time favorite books. I don’t believe I will ever be as excellent a word smith as The great C.S. Lewis but I do hope to one day be a published author. I have had a strong sense of the book I would very much like to write for many years now, but never have I taken a moment to jot even one line down. My unwritten book, whose working title is “Moments of Insanity”, is based on a passage from my favorite book by my favorite author. I don’t know how many people will relate to the premise, which I’m sure would be essential for a successful book, but the whole idea strikes deep within me and I would very much like to finish the work if for no other person’s benefit than my own. I’ll pretend this is a two way conversation and that you’ve just asked “What is the premise?” Many of my friends might suggest that reading my blog is very much like a conversation with me – one in which you don’t often get a word in, but I digress. To answer your question:
In the book, The Silver Chair, there is a Knight who assists the Queen of an under world and is in all discernible matters a very well put together, very sane person. At night however he is strapped to an enchanted chair because, we are told that he has fits of rage and pure insanity. The enchanted chair is the only thing keeping him together. But during one of these nightly fits, the Knight shouts these words:
“Quick! I am sane now. Every night I am sane. If only I could get out of this enchanted chair, it would last. I should be a man again. But every night they bind me, and so every night my chance is gone. But you are not enemies. I am not your prisoner. Quick! Cut these cords.”
In this moment, we are faced with a choice. Do we believe this insane, enraged maniac? Or do we prefer the put-together version of the character. As a Christian, I have had moments in my life when everything suddenly seems more clear than before, when I know some action I must do, despite not always knowing to what end or what purpose that the thing must be done. These moments seem to occur most often during a church service or personal devotion; times when my focus is most on the creator.
I believe we are created beings, creatures made by a creator. I believe God created us with a purpose or purposes in mind and that at some point we as a species left that divine purpose to follow our own. For the most of us, we get along just fine in this condition; pursuing careers, mates, pleasures on both intellectual and physical levels. These are our daytime hours, our daily lives when things are almost on auto-pilot. I wake up, goto work, goto lunch, return to work, go home, spend time watching TV, eat dinner, spend time with the family, goto bed, wake up, and do it all over again. But there are moments that break the white-line-fever method in which we go about our lives. Its in those moments that I believe we become aware. I want to write a book about those moments. Or more precisely, how to ‘cut these cords’ that keep us from leaving the ‘chair’ and walking in that strangely clear frame of mind.
3 replies on “Cut These Cords!”
I still think you should use “Moments of temporary sanity” instead. But I still like the concept.
My favorite of the Chronicles is the Silver Chair, for many of the same reasons. Had I listened to “sanity”, I would still live in CT and be just now finishing med school and residency. Instead, I am married to the perfect man for me and have going on three awesome kids and a life I know is meant to be. In regard to a later post, I once went 2 years without TV. You can do it, and it will definitely change your view of things. Try not to, however, let it become a huge issue in your family. My dad did that, and it was just a bigger distraction in that it led to disharmony in the home because the rest of us really didn’t understand and were being pressed upon to change from without instead of within. When fasting, it is always better to follow the spirit of the fast and get the results you were meant to achieve than to follow the letter of the law and be further bound instead of it being a freeing experience (ie TV no longer is a part of my daily routine–as opposed to–The subject of TV now brings disunity and disappointment in my home) Just a thought from personal experience.
[…] Television (or at least I’ve supposed to fast TV). I believed a though I had to be ”moment of insanity” on the way home from a family function a month ago. Since I do intend to write a book […]