I was recruited (rather to my astonishment) to play the hymns, Gloria Patri and Doxology. A teenage girl played the prelude and accompanied the choir on a simple arrangement of "Jesus Walked That Lonesome Valley." A nine-year-old girl played the offertory. I asked another church member to do the children's lesson, so I wouldn't be running back and forth like a plate-spinning juggler.
Anyway, I played the hymns the way I liked them, which was in a style they hadn't encountered before, but they liked them that way, too. Most of the congregation were not aware that I play organ, and they were delighted. My sermon was better than my organ playing, but I'm glad both went well.
And, oh yeah, I had Guido to help me. Guido is a little toy monkey that I place on the organ on those rare occasions when I play in public. Like they say, every organ grinder needs a monkey.
This afternoon,
siege and I went shopping for home and youth. The youth had a spaghetti dinner this evening to raise money for their summer mission trip. It went very well. A movie was to accompany the dinner, and I watched the second half of it: it was the film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was pretty good as these things go.Anyway, the movie made me think of the comparisons between Lewis and Tolkien that we've had some posting about recently. It made me realize that part of what Lewis was doing with his famous thought experiment about Aslan is the redemption of Boxen. Those who see Narnia as a poor substitute for a properly-thought-out (catholic) kind of fantasy world fail to understand the imaginative world of Lewis's childhood.
Lewis loved what he called "dressed animals." He invented his own fantasy world of Animal-Land and people it with all kinds of creatures, many of which show up later in Narnia. His brother Warnie loved to fantasize about India, and created an adjacent "India," which got attached to Animal-Land to form the united kingdom of Boxen. Though Tolkien might find Narnia not to his taste, it very much was to Lewis's taste, as elves and engliscnesse was to Tolkien's. So I don't see Lewis trying to do Protestant or Platonist or other kind of theology here, but rather trying to find a way to validate the vision of his childhood and youth, much as Tolkien eventually passed beyond his early (and embarrassing) writings about elves and fairies to find a vision that summed up his deepest feelings from way back.
Very bad day today for
collinsmom. She didn't come downstairs till this evening. But her arthritis isn't quite so bad now. We'll hope she's much improved by tomorrow.