The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

In this season of life, I find myself moving toward a crescendo of admiration for C.S. Lewis, his mind, his heart, and his writings, including The Great Divorce, which I've just finished reading. I do believe it has changed my life. I want to write like he does (did, but his writings seem so present). I want to affect hearts the way he affects mine. Beginning with the Narnia series last year, I’ve been diving into C.S. Lewis’s writings and plan to continue in 2023 as I endeavour to write a novel of my own. His words are lyrical and more than intelligent and they have a way of jolting me with their beauty. I want to jolt others with beauty! And I want to be jolted still more!

Here are some of the quotes (with a bit of commentary by me) which particularly touched my heart and spirit and mind in this allegory of a busload of souls arriving to heaven from hell, their wills and autonomy and decision-making abilities intact:

“I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish: but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot ‘develop’ into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit by bit - or else not. If we insist on keeping Hell (or even Earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.”

“They were in fact ghosts: man-shaped stains on the brightness of that air.” [Oh! How I LONG to write like THIS!] “One could attend to them or ignore them at will as you do with the dirt on a window pane.”

“…I saw people coming to meet us. Because they were bright I saw them while they were still very distant, and at first I did not know that they were people at all. Mile after mile they drew nearer. The earth shook under their tread as their strong feet sank into the wet turf. A tiny haze and a sweet smell went up where they had crushed the grass and scattered the dew. Some were naked, some robed. But the naked ones did not seem less adorned, and the robes did not disguise in those who wore them the massive grandeur of muscle and the radiant smoothness of flesh. Some were bearded but no one in that company struck me as being of any particular age. One gets glimpses, even in our country, of that which is ageless - heavy thought in the face of an infant, and frolic childhood in that of a very old man. Here it was all like that. They came on steadily. I did not entirely like it. Two of the ghosts screamed and ran for the bus. The rest of us huddled closer to one another.” [I want “frolic childhood” now and forevermore!]

"'Friend,' said the Spirit. 'Could you, only for a moment, fix your mind on something not yourself?'" [How often have I thought this - confessedly ungraciously - about someone whom I felt was taking up all the oxygen in a room with his or her self-centeredness? And even, admittedly, how often have I chastised myself with these same words when I've descended into self-pity or depression?]

"His eyes had the far-seeing look of one who has lived long in open, solitary places; and somehow I divined the network of wrinkles which must have surrounded them before re-birth had washed him in immortality." [C.S. Lewis, I have learned long-admired George MacDonald, of whom he wrote and who became his mentor, and whom he designated a sage of wisdom within the pages of The Great Divorce]

"The sane would do no good if they made themselves mad to help madmen." [Or, building on this theme, which Lewis does, the joyful would do no good if they filled themselves with misery to help the miserable.]

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'" [How like a mallet on the head this hit me! Whoa!!!]

"When you have drunk [from the fountain] you forget forever all proprietorship in your own works. You enjoy them as if they were someone else's: without pride and without modesty." [This was the discourse between a Bright One and an artist ghost. I have a writing coach who, at our first meeting, essentially advised me of the same: to not hold onto what I create with God but to surrender it to Him, not owning the accolades any more than the criticisms.]

"The Glory flows into everyone, and back from everyone: like light and mirrors. But the light's the thing." [I want to be a Light-Chaser!]

"The new-made man turned and clapped the new horse's neck. It nosed his bright body. Horse and master breathed each into the other's nostrils. The man turned from it, flung himself at the feet of the Burning One, and embraced them. When he rose I thought his face shone with tears, but it may have been only the liquid love and brightness (one cannot distinguish them in that country) which flowed from him." [The encounter on pages 106-112 leading up to this exchange is one of the most deeply moving excerpts in the book and reminded me of the letting go of addictions which we believe we can never be without or rid of. It is incredibly heart-impacting and brings me to tears even now.]

"I knew it was not the Solid People who were singing. It was the voice of that earth, those woods and those waters....It sang...'Come up. Share my rest and splendour till all natures that were your enemies become slaves to dance before you and backs for you to ride, and firmness for your feet to rest on...the strengths that once opposed your will shall be obedient fire in your blood and heavenly thunder in your voice. Overcome us that, so overcome, we may be ourselves..." [When we overcome addiction and other modes of self-sabotage, oh, then we become who we are meant to be!]

"Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed."

"Her name on Earth was Sarah Smith...she is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things...there is joy enough in the little finger of a great saint such as yonder lady to waken all the dead things of the universe into life."

"Here is joy that cannot be shaken. Our light can swallow up your darkness: but your darkness cannot now infect our light...Can you really have thought that love and joy would always be at the mercy of frowns and sighs? Did you not know they were stronger than their opposites?" [Yes! Love and joy are stronger than their opposites!]

"I am in Love, and out of it I will not go." [I picture the woman, formerly known as Sarah Smith, walking and living in Love itself, like it's a shimmering, all about her and in her, and it never leaves her.]

"Presently the lady got up and began to walk away. The other Bright Spirits came forward to receive her, singing as they came:

'The Happy Trinity is her home: nothing can trouble her joy.

She is the bird that evades every net: the wild deer that leaps every pitfall.

Like the mother bird to its chickens or a shield to the arm'd knight: so is the Lord to her mind, in His unchanging lucidity.

Bogies will not scare her in the dark: bullets will not frighten her in the day.

Falsehoods tricked out as truths assail her in vain; she sees through the lie as if it were glass.

The invisible germ will not harm her: nor yet the glittering sun-stroke.

A thousand fail to solve the problem, ten thousand choose the wrong turning: but she passes safely through.

He details immortal gods to attend her: upon every road where she must travel.

They take her hand at hard places: she will not stub her toes in the dark.

She may walk among Lions and rattlesnakes: among dinosaurs and nurseries of lionets.

He fills her brim-full with immensity of life: he leads her to see the world's desire.'"

[I take the previous passage as my own…oh, to be “brim-full with immensity of life”!]

"The blocks of light [as he woke from what he discovers has been a dream] were only the books which I had pulled off...falling about my head."

How I love that C.S. Lewis ended The Great Divorce with books as blocks of light! This book is indeed that for me!