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I've been reading this book that Lilly sent me called "
Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul" by
John Eldredge. When we first started chatting online so many months ago, she mentioned it to me, and talked about how much she really liked it. I've come to the conclusion that this book must have really changed her perspective on men. At any rate, she kept suggesting it to me, and I kept hinting that maybe she should lend it to me. A couple of weeks ago, she did.
It's been interesting. I have enjoyed it so far. It's probably the kind of book that most guys would not, on their own, go and get. It doesn't seem to me like most guys want to get real introspective of themselves, or, at least, not publicly want to. This book does a lot of that.
The main theme of the book seems to revolve around the idea that men are meant to be wild creatures, like their creator is. The author says that this is at the core of a man's soul. Furthermore, he says, men are wounded. They are wounded often by society, by women, by their mothers and, most often, their fathers. As the book moves forward, it talks about how this happens, often by accident, to all men. A man's self worth so often is given to him by his father, and when that self worth is not there, he suffers.
I don't mean to outline the whole book here. There's more to it than that. It all boils down though to the truth that, ultimately, our truth self worth (irrelevant of gender) comes from our ultimate Father, God Almighty. It is He who knows our true name and who we are supposed to be.
So, why am I ranting about this? (aside from the fact that the book is good, and I would recomend it to guys and girls alike) : It just gave me a new (or maybe I should say "better clarified") perspective on Edmond.
Who's Edmund you might wonder? Well, I am referring to the
Edmund Pevensie from
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I'm watching it right now (yes, the new version, and not the BBC one), and it suddenly struck me as I watched Edmund yell at Peter, "You think you're father, and you're not!" I found myself suddenly thinking about how that concept is really woven throughout the story. I think that the director/producer of this movie must of really wanted to emphasis it though. Otherwise, why would he have added that scene at the beginning where Edmund runs back into the house after the picture of his father? As the story goes on, C.S. Lewis obviously wrote the character in such a way that one could associate his treachery with our sin, his bitterness with the bitterness we find also inherent in so much of life. At the very beginning of the story we see Edmund at odds with his family, and struggling with his own identity as a person. Then, early on, who is it that entices him into his treachery? A woman. One can draw parallels to the creation story in Genesis easily enough, but I found myself looking at it from a different perspective tonight.
In the book, "Wild at Heart", it is mentioned that, when a man recieves his wound (he actually recieves many of them), he ends up looking for some sort of affirmation from somewhere, anywhere, else. Man often looks for it women. I found myself tonight thinking of Edmund's encounter with the White Witch in the same way. She tells him how much she thinks he is worth, how far he can go, and how special he can become. (I'm going on the movie here) His face brightens emphatically when she tells him this. He's seeing a possibility for the hope of being more than what he is for the first time in a long time.
Edmund clutches to this hope even when he hears that the witch is evil. And then, even when it is obvious that the witch is evil, he still tries to appease her: "I left before they said anything.
I wanted to see you!" It is a while yet before he realizes his mistake, and, then, it's too late.
Ultimately though, the result for Edmund is in complete agreeance with "Wild at Heart": The true healing, redemption, and, ultimately, the finding of who Edmund
is (King Edmund the Just) comes from Aslan (an obvious allegory of Christ).
It's not just Edmun though. Both Edmund and Peter are looking for a father in the absense of their biological one. And, Pater is certainly like so many men who "gut it out" and struggle to find themselves in spite of that absense or in spite of their wound. Aslan heals him of his wound, too, and gives him his identity:
Sir Peter Wolfsbane, Knight of Narnia. (and later: King Peter the Magnificent) Talk about a name!! It's cool to watch how Aslan strengthens them and affirms their manhood. I think all of us men really need that, and, like them, can only find it in Christ.
There's a lot of beautry in C.S. Lewis's work because of how much it really is based on Christianity. He has (I say "has" because I believe he is in Heaven with Christ) a fascinating God given talent for creating worlds of fabulous fiction that are not at odds with Christian theology (or, at least, not heavily..lol). It's a cool talent that is plainly evident in several of C.S. Lewis's works:
The Cosmic Trilogy (
Out of the Silent Planet,
Perelandra, and
That Hideous Strength),
The Chronicles of Narnia (I'm not listing them all here!), and even
The Screwtape Letters. I admit it: I'm jealous.
On a closing note here, I would like to say this: C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, author (excluding God, of course!). I would recomend a lot of his books, certainly all I've mentioned here and then some. I don't have a whole lot of experience yet with John Eldredge, but, from what I've read so far, it's been pretty good. Lilly raves about him in this book, and, apparently, others, too. I trust her judgement. I'm reading this one now, and it's been good so far. It delivers a very unusual (in my opinion) message against the "watering down" of the male of our species, and it gives a strong case for that message's validity. So, I recomend it, too.
In the movie, which I am watching as I write this, Aslan was just killed. So, I'm going to go back to it now. The coolest scene in the movie is coming up: When the stone table splits and Aslan rises from the dead. I love it.
~ good night!
"You've seen Aslan? What is he like?"
"Like everything we've ever heard."
- excerpt from the movie: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
"Please, Lamb," said Lucy, "is this the way to Aslan's country?"
"Not for you," said the Lamb. "For you the door into Aslan's country is from your own world."
"What!" said Edmund. "Is there a way into Aslan's country from our world too?"
"There is a way into my country from all the worlds," said the Lamb; but as he spoke his snowy white flushed into tawny gold and his size changed and he was Aslan himself, towering above them and scattering light from his mane.
"Oh, Aslan," said Lucy. "Will you tell us how to get into your country from our world?"
"I shall be telling you all the time," said Aslan. "But I will not tell you how long or short the way will be; only that it lies across a river. But do not fear that, for I am the great Bridge Builder. And now come; I will open the door in the sky and send you to your own land."
"Please, Aslan," said Lucy. "Before we go, will you tell us when we can come back to Narnia again? Please. And oh, do, do, do make it soon." '
"Dearest," said Aslan very gently, "you and your brother will never come back to Narnia."
"Oh, Aslan!!" said Edmund and Lucy both together in despairing voices.
"You are too old, children," said Aslan, "and you must begin to come close to your own world now."
"It isn't Narnia, you know," sobbed Lucy. "It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?"
"But you shall meet me, dear one," said Aslan.
"Are are you there too, Sir?" said Edmund.
"I am," said Aslan. "But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there."
- excerpt from The Chronicles of Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
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