C.S. Lewis

I have been meaning to do a post on C.S. Lewis after an incredible symposium from a traveling scholar. His name is Christopher Mitchell and is from Wheaton College. He's amazing-too bad I ruined the tone of the presentation.

Mitchell did a great job of explaining how Lewis was born into a loving family, which was destroyed by his mother's death and his own trip to what can only be the stereotypical scary boarding school. He didn't enjoy it.

So, he got mad at God. Lewis was mad that God didn't exist. He was mad that God might exist. He was mad that if God did exist then it was unfair that Lewis got the life he had, and that he wasn't asked whether he wanted it or not. Thus, Lewis became an atheist.

Lucky for Lewis he was an oxford prodigy who did very well in his studies of the classics. Throw in World War II for life experience, and Lewis began to rethink religion. Eventually some of his most athiest friends became Christian, and so too did Lewis.

What I found interesting was that Lewis recognized that his education was based in the intellectual ideas of naturalism (you know....Darwin). Well, what Lewis claims is that there is such thing as an arch of humanity, or myths across cultures that reflect the most deep human truths. This he calls imagination. The unexplainable. And that is where one finds religion.

After doing a lot of research on myths, Lewis delineated on the true myth which is frequently alluded to in all cultures and that is Christ's atonement (this was verified by the history channel's show yesterday which talked about how almost every religion has a redemption story and a good vs evil theme). Though, he makes note that conversion is more personal and the moment of conversation is almost impossible to express in words.

Lewis is brilliant.

And he claims that those who aren't Christian are such because of two reasons.

1. Chronology of snobbery (the idea of disregarding the information of past generations)

2. Lacks a satisfactory theory of knowledge (something Lewis deeply related to)

Ok, so how I changed the tone.

After this amazing lecture on Lewis someone brought up how Lewis--the creator of The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe hated children!-can you believe that? Anyway, I referred to a documentary called Shadowlands about how he really didn't like women much either. Keep in mind this is front of many many people.

Now, the presenter stops, says twice that it was a really good question, and quickly disregards talking about Lewis' relationship with women. At that point he was done taking questions....oops. (FYI it was 45 mins after the presentation was supposed to be finished).

My friend just said "way to go Sarah."

Anyway, I heart the presenter and C.S. Lewis (though I wish he liked women and children a little bit more.)

Mitchell also said that Lewis, as an atheist during conversion, said that the literature that spoke the most to him were works by authors who had religion in their lives. It was as if they had tapped into a deeper meaning, and after this realization, look at the works Lewis produced: The Great Divorce, Mere Christianity, and The Screwtape Letters.

Lewis said this about it "A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading."Great literature reflects Christ.

A quote to leave you with "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. "

PS: Happy Sunday-and I am way excited for the new Narnia movie.

Humans vs Zombies

(I did not take this pic...you can find it on google images)

There is a new disease infecting USU. It's worse than swine flu, and far more entertaining. It is called humans vs zombies and it has 800 participants (like, that is the real number on the website). Basically every freshman on campus starts out as a human and slowly gets infected by being touched by zombies. The only way to ward off the zombies is to stun them with sock balls or nerf guns (which, fyi Cache Valley is completely sold out of). It lasts a week long and at the end of the week the winner is whoever stays a human. The students can only play outside so basically students are running around like mad to get indoors. While traveling outside of classes they travel like packs of rats with nerf guns and identifying bandanas. It's pure madness, and entertainment. I have never been more on board for a college campus game. It makes you remember that college is cool....(or at least colleges that let students do things, unlike BYU sometimes).

In response to the exciting conversation of humans vs zombies in class, I brought up the exciting event of voting (which I did by absentee ballot). The response? 25 blank stares, and 3 students asking about voting for what. It broke my heart. Apparently the democratic process doesn't exist to zombies...or humans for that matter.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T (to authors)

Getting an MA means that you get to hang out with English people all day long. This is always a pleasure, but one of the most delightful things about it is the expectation to go to all of the English activities that you would never do in undergrad because it wasn't cool and you had friends other then those in your program. Well, now things have changed and I am very pleased and surprised at the exposure to great authors that USU has been able to attract.

Of the many speakers we have had come I have particularly liked two. I read How the Irish Saved Civilization years ago (thank you dad for being the historian that you are, and for keeping Boarders in business with all of your purchases). Cahill's presentation was about his books in the series about the hinges of history. It's really interesting to hear authors talk about what they love and their perspective on their writing. Cahill is very religious and his talk was very political, particularly about creating a world of hope and faith by stopping war (which he claims has never helped any country). He's also a little profane...which keeps the audience engaged.

Today the speaker we had is the poet of South Africa. She's legit. Think of any award and she's won it. Think of any conference and she's presented there. She lived during the apartheid system and the bantu education act and many of her poems are about growing up in that system. After apartheid was abolished and South Africa was slowly redefining itself HIV struck, and with poor governmental reaction AIDs got incredibly out of hand (with currently 1 in 10 individuals having HIV--most women and mothers). This is particularly interesting to me because I am in a class that is very centered on African writers and their connection with Langston Hughes.

Here is a taste of her writing, and the context of the poem is a reaction against the AIDS epidemic and the young children who are forced to quickly become adults and help to sustain the family.

The head of the household

is a girl of thirteen
and her children are many.

Left-overs, moulting gulls,
wet unweaned sacks

she carries them under her arms
and on her back

though some must walk beside her
bearing their own bones and mash

when not on the floor
in sickness and distress

rolled up in rows
facing the open stall.

Moon and bone-cold stars
navigational spoor

for ambulance, hearse,
the delivery vans

that will fetch and dispatch
the homeless, motherless

unclean and dead
and a girl of thirteen,

children in her arms,
house balanced on her head.

The Poof

I was warned about two things in Logan.

Tied-dye shirts and the poof. I have had numerous experiences with both, but this post is dedicated to the poof.

If you don’t know what the poof is you must come visit. Northern Utahans (I just had to look up if that is really what natives of Utah are called, and we are indeed Utahans) love to sport the high volume poof in their hair. The style is simple. You take straight, beautiful hair and ruin it my ratting the under layers, destroying them (and possibly the atmosphere) with hair spray in a can, and then smoothing the top. Thus adding 4 inches of height.

I was talking to my roommates about the poof and Annie said “everybody poofs.” As if that statement alone isn’t funny enough, I couldn’t stop thinking about the book “Everybody Poops,” a childhood classic. I digress.

Anyway, I look around and it’s true. Virtually 80% of the girls up here are sporting the poof proudly. It seems unspoken that there is a competition and the one with the most poof has the most power. Poof=power. An odd equation, but one which the Loganites (I didn’t look up that name. I am choosing to believe they are called Loganites because it sounds fantastic) hold to. Sometimes I sit in class and look around at the poofs, because it’s hard to see the professor due to said poof, and I just think about how much work the poof is. The irony of it all is I spend all morning attempting to rid myself of my natural poof, a product of very curly hair, and am always a little disappointed with the inevitable remaining poof. In my world poof= girls with a inferiority complex whose fake nails are always too short for them and their Aeropostal shirts have been dried one time too many. But alas, there is the small voice inside of me that, for .5 sec thinks, I’m so glad I have natural (or any sort) of volumne in my hair.

I often wonder if the poof is natural though--or if they have invested in the ever classic tv infomercial of the bumpit. This invention, which comes in three sizes, allows for the unnatural look of the poof (sometimes referred to as the bump-hense bumpit) to be done in mere minuets. Thank you inventor--for further delaying the progress of women in Logan.

If you're wondering how a bumpit works I've added instructions.

The point of this post? To pledge to never intentionally poof and to keep a healthy perspective of how ridiculous the poof is. This could be a challenge because I am surrounded by it daily. Will you make the pledge?