On path ways and road signs

But what, in conclusion of Joy?

for that, after all,

what the story has mainly been about.

To tell you the truth,

the subject has lost nearly all interest for me

since I became a Christian. ...

I cannot, indeed, complain, like Wordsworth, that the visionary gleam has passed away. ...

But I now know that the experience, considered as a state of my own mind, had never the kind of importance I once gave it. ...

It was valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer. ...
When we are lost in the woods the sight of a signpost is a great matter. ...
He who first sees it cries "Look!" The whole party gathers round and stares. ..
But when we have found the road and are passing sign post every few miles, we shall not stop and stare.
They will encourage us and we shall be grateful to the authority that set them up. ...

But we shall not stop and stare, or not much; not on this road, ...

Not, of course, that I Don't often catch myself stopping to stare at roadside objects of even less importance.

(Suprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life)

Clive Stanley Lewis

Page 238

Joy = sehnsucht a difficult to translate Germain concept.

a longing intense...

this drive will not rest ...

not feeling at home.
I need to leave peace.

The circle I seek,

return I may then.

[my first poetry]

(see in addition to, G.K. Chesterton, "Homesick at Home” (1896) from The Coloured Lands (London: Sheed & Ward, 1938))

Gifts, from the Muze's