I’ve been reading G.K. Chesteron’s book Orthodoxy the past couple of months and am discovering how much I enjoy his writing style and personality. What I most enjoy about him is that he brings me back to an honest romantic view of life, which is one I try hard to avoid. It is so easy to grow cynical and tired of everything and how refreshing it is to be reminded yet again that there is more to life than meets the eye. The longings of the heart indicate there is something that can fulfill those. To quote from the first chapter:
[W]e need this life of practical romance; the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure. We need so to view the world as to combine an idea of wonder and an idea of welcome. We need to be happy in this wonderland without once being merely comfortable.
And in chapter four:
[T]he strongest emotion was that life was as precious as it was puzzling. It was an ecstasy because it was an adventure; it was an adventure because it was an opportunity. The goodness of the fairy tale was not affected by the fact there might be more dragons than princesses; it was good to be in the fairy tale. The test of all happiness is gratitude; and I felt grateful, though I hardly knew to whom.
It reminded me of the delight in my childhood over fairy tales and how much I loved them and dreamed of being in them (and he describes his own similar feelings in the paragraphs surrounding the above quote). As I’ve grown older, I’ve grown more realistic about life, trading dreams of my youth for the reality of the world, and in doing so, lost much of the joy and excitement of being alive. I defined realism as harsh honesty about and acceptance of reality, when in fact, “as long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity” (from chapter 2).
I look forward to sharing more as I continue reading his books. They are a key that unlocks part of my heart.
