I love the experience of reading a used book. There’s something about thinking that the pages have been experienced by someone else that makes it interesting to me. I look at the words and wonder what the other person thought when their eyes passed over them. Recently I have started reading “The Great Divorce” by C.S. Lewis. I was given the book by someone close to me. The book is very interesting to me, and it is basically a fantasy about what what it would be like, as a citizen of Hell, to take a trip to Heaven.
Physically the book is in great condition. I noticed that there was one page that had the corner folded over. When I received the book, I assumed that this was just a random stopping point, an easy way of marking where they were. Maybe this is still true, maybe that’s how this corner was folded. But then I wondered if there was another reason. As I read through the pages, there seemed to be nothing that would warrant flagging for its own sake. Then, at the end of the page marked, I read this:
“Ye cannot in your present state understand eternity…” “… But ye can get some likeness of it if ye say that both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective. Not only this valley but all their earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. Not only the twilight in that town, but all their life on Earth too, will then be seen by the damned to have been Hell. This is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say ‘Let me have but this and I’ll take the consequences’: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say ‘We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,’ and the Lost, ‘We were always in Hell.’ And both will speak truly.”
This is a great part of my Joy. I am living at the very beginning of eternity.
Happy Easter everyone, I hope that the time was spent with family and friends. Sadly, in these expatriate days, I do not spend my time with family. Last year, I did, which was great, but that was a long time ago now. To add to my reminder of that time, I even went out to dinner to Ahmet’s on Thursday. It was a good friend’s girlfriend’s birthday, and lots of fun.
It has been raining all weekend, especially today, in which I have not gone far from the house. Earlier in the weekend, I took a run up to see an old friend who lives on the sunshine coast, and try a little fishing up there. It was no good for fishing, despite the number of hopeful fools on all the docks, jettys and beaches. The water was just too dirty I think. There were some pretty major floods in the last few weeks, especially some down south in NSW and on the sunshine coast. I think all the runoff just made the water too turbid to have any luck with the fishes. I might add that I still did catch a fish, the only one of the trip. 🙂 The size is somewhat irrelevant. John, my housemate and I headed up and spent the night at a friend of his from Uni.
With Easter over now, I am staring at the last run down to the mid year exam, and all that involves. I hope it will be ok.
I copied this from http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html It’s not my own work at all.
All this talk about “stimulus packages” and “bailouts”… The G20 just decided to spend another trillion on supporting the falsehood that is the free market share system.
A billion dollars…
A hundred billion dollars…
Eight hundred billion dollars…
One TRILLION dollars…
A few photos from our trip last week. We had the week off classes, following the end of a block.
We went out to North Stradbroke Island, which is directly east of Brisbane, about a 45 minute ferry ride from the coast, which is about an hour drive from where I live.
In the photos you can see who was there, Bec A, Bec M, Carol, Tim and myself. We squeezed all our stuff into Carol’s car and walked on to the ferry so it was cheaper! 🙂 Then on the other side we shuttled back and forth to the campsite.
It was so good to get away, and get out there. The weather was perfect and the place more so. I bought some fishing gear, hoping to toss it in the water. I had so much fun doing it, and am really glad I did. We had some minor success as you can see in the photos. We ended up eating a little of our haul that night.
Also on the trip, we went to two lakes on the island, creatively named Brown Lake, and Blue Lake. They both lived up to their names. The water was warm enough to get in and stay in, and we ended up swimming all the way across Brown Lake and back, which was probably 1 km across. Blue Lake was at the end of a 1 hour bush walk. When we arrived we were able to surprise a middle aged couple of skinny dippers.
Tim had to go back earlier than the rest of us, so we stayed another day after dropping him off at the ferry. We ended up just relaxing, swimming and had a fire on the beach at night. Coming home was tough, after a few days away from all the realities of life, it was quite a downer to get home. I think that just speaks to how great it was to have gone.
You can see the photos in larger format by clicking the link.
As I sat there on the beach, looking out to the vast Pacific expanse before me, I wondered how I was so lucky as to be there. At 4:45 am, the tide was coming in. I was awake, and sitting there in my sleeping bag, watching the water come closer and closer.
Then I noticed something strange in the sand. When a wave would run up onto the sand, and would touch new sand, there would sometimes be a little yellow-green glow that lit up in the sand as the water pulled away, just at the edge. I don’ t know what it was, or if it was a real or not, but it looked pretty cool. I loved it out there.
Headed out to Stradbroke Island for a few days to camp, fish the beach and chill. It should be really good and I’m looking forward to it. Last time I went out to this island I got insanely sunburned. Hopefully that won’t happen again.
Dave
Samuel Xavier Kemp, my nephew in Vancouver is three years old today. (March 20 in Canada) I had a chat with him and he proudly told me he was three years old, even though he’s been saying he was three for quite some time now. He went to the Green Store and had some cake, and got to go to the Aquarium.
I love that guy so much. So sad I couldn’t be there!
I’m happy that at least we can catch up on the phone. I miss all of you at home. Hope you’re doing well. I am getting over the sickness already.
With a big assignment due tomorrow and a week of holiday coming up, I am sick. I have big waves of fevers and chills and lumps in my throat! Ah. I just wish the world would go away for about 5 days.
My sister and her husband had a baby today (March 13 North America time). I’m so excited about him. He is my third nephew, and Jenn and James’s first baby. Born early in the morning, he is a happy and welcome blessing. I can’t wait to meet him. I have seen a few photos and he looks great. My prayers are with you three!
Looking back over the last few months, and all that has happened, the music I have listened to kinda captures a lot of what was going on. Does the mood make the music or vice versa? Anyways, here’s a tour backwards through time.
Copyright © 2008 - graffiX Publishing All Rights Reserved. 283.5