The Great Divorce

I've been reading The Great Divorce for my book club. It's C.S. Lewis and not actually about divorce, but about heaven and hell. I always love me a good C.S. Lewis, although I've never been able to get through The Problem of Pain. He's not quite there doctrinally, but he does give you a  lot to think about. The basis of this book is that hell is a state of mind. If you can let go of selfishness, your pride, faults, etc.--basically be able to give up your sense of self as you have known it--then you'll be transported to heaven, which is reality. Earth life and life in hell was just an illusion, a ghost of things, and once you accept Christ you're able to see life for what it really is.

So here's what this book made me think about. Some time ago I happened to catch a BYU devotional on the radio. It was a professor who had moved from the UK to Provo about ten years ago, and he started out talking about the ways in which he still felt a foreigner in the U.S., like he still felt he was driving on the wrong side of the road. He then turned this into a metaphor in the ways our lives now would feel foreign in heaven. It really got me thinking. There are things I'm pretty attached to that really wouldn't jive in heaven. I hold on to things because I think they're part of me, but should they be? I do love me some mindless tv at the end of a bad day, but I'm pretty sure they won't show Thursday night comedies in the Celestial kingdom (still hoping I get there). So, thinking about the things we get so attached to: our hobbies, likes, so forth, thinking that they define who we are, when maybe we should be thinking a little bigger than concentrating on such ephemeral things.

And another metaphor (I was pretty insightful this morning at 4): nutrition. I keep thinking I ought to be eating more healthfully, since you know I don't want to be growing an obese baby or anything. But my days are such that when I'm hungry and have a minute to grab something, I go for something easy like leftover birthday cake. The apples are right there in the fridge, but that's too much work. So, and here's where it gets all philosophical, I think when I'm in need of relaxation or even just some temporary distraction, I reach for the spiritual/intellectual equivalent of ice cream, something that will satisfy me now but does not nourish. But oughtn't I reach for the kale?

So, cars, nutritional superfoods, great divorces. Have I got everything? I didn't sleep much last night. I hope you can't tell.