Joking With Immortals

With all the chaos going on in the world and even in our own little corner of it, its’ good to remember that everyone around us have been brought into existence and are now a permanent part of it. Lets remember that before we comment negatively about someone else.  C.S. Lewis reminds us that…

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (1942)

And now let us illustrate this quote and flesh it out. even more.

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses,

to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to

may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship,

or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations.

It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities,

it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them,

that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another,

all friendships,

all loves,

all play,

all politics.

There are no ordinary people.

You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Nations,

cultures,

arts,

civilizations

– these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.

But it is immortals whom we joke with,

work with,

marry,

snub,

and exploit

– immortal horrors

or everlasting splendors.”

― C.S. Lewis,

The Weight of Glory (1942)

One of these immortals we joke with just might be

Somebody’s Daughter…