One of things I learnt on my trip was that C.S. Lewis was born in Belfast. (I always thought he was born in England.) I was taken to the St. Mark’s Church where he was baptised by his Grandfather Rev. Thomas Hamilton who lived in the rectory alongside.
The doorknob of the rectory was a bold brass Lion in the centre
of a bright red door and the inspiration for Aslan, the Lion, in
The Chronicles of Narnia.
On a nearby statue of him it reads: “Born 1898 and reborn 1931.”
Lewis once wrote: “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.”
In The Four Loves he wrote: “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
In Peace, Alan
