"Meditation in a Toolshe"

When first asked to read this little bit of writing by C.S. Lewis I did not know what to expect as I had never read the smallest bit of his writing before. However, right from the start I was able to see his writing style and the depth at which he wrote with. I found myself extremely confused and not understanding what he was saying; only getting a general idea. Perhaps as I read more of his writing on an array of topics I’ll be able to understand his ideas and get to know him.

On the second page of “Meditation in a Toolshed,” I finally understood the importance and relevance of looking along something and looking at something when he wrote that, “In other words, you can step outside one experience only by stepping inside another.” I interpreted that to mean that you can never only look along or look at something, but you must do both to find true meaning in whatever you are dealing with. I do not know whether or not that’s how he intended that to be read, but that’s how I read it and I think that was consistent with the overall message. This is key because as he explained with his example of interpretations of love by a boyfriend and a scientist, we know that there is no one truth to anything. I found that to be very consistent with the idea that Calvin is a liberal arts college and that we need to be educated in not just our field of choice, but many diverse fields to be successful in life.

In our discussion I really liked how Will Montei said that C.S. Lewis “intends on relating it to Christianity, but never does.” I never would have thought of his writing in that way, but then again I have not been immersed in his writing before now. For the most part it seemed as if everyone in the class interpreted the passage in the same way, although there was some variation in the importance people thought should be placed on looking at and looking along something. Finally, I loved the example Mrs. Ribeiro gave with Christ’s life and how he gave us a chance to actually look at him as Christians rather than solely looking along and experiencing faith.