Tuesday, March 10, 2009

They will meet cruel enemies...

"Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless: in fact, phobias. His mind must, if possible, be kept clear of things he can't bear to think of. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil. If they mean the first I agree with them: but not if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give children a false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is something ludicrous in the idea of so educating a generation which is born to the...atomic bomb. Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker." -C.S. Lewis

A great Hobbit picture from here http://quickhidehere.blogspot.com

5 comments:

Matt said...

awesome painting! checked out his other work too, amazing stuff.
p.s. I think you can adjust your settings so people with google accounts don't have to do word verification.

Unknown said...

Anyone - includes Anonymous Users
Registered Users - includes OpenID
Users with Google Accounts
Only members of this blog

Above is the choices for commenting...

I currently have the first choice picked...to allow anyone to comment.

I thought that If I pick the registered/openID then anonymous people cant comment or lazy people who just cant figure out how to register or move from an anonymous designation.

Am I wrong?

Matt said...

yeah I guess your right, I thought there was an option not to have the word verification show up for registered uses, but I guess thats only if they are the blogs authors. Anyway not a big deal. I just hate extra steps.

Mel said...

That is an incredible blog. I could get lost in it for a while. Okay, I confess, I already have gotten lost in it for a while.

This post is just another confirmation to me that this blog is part of God's plan for my life right now. It actually builds on something He confirmed to my heart through the Poets more than Prophets post.

I read a story to our Awana class last night. Part of the story involved death, and one of the girls looked at me with incredulous eyes and said, "I can't believe you're reading this to us!" But at the end of the story, she said, "That was a really great story!"

Death happens. We're engaged in a battle. Running around with blinders on doesn't ever do anyone any good in the long run. Thanks for posting this.

FCB said...

That's a great quote, and in the first part of guarding against "things he can't bear to think of." I couldn't agree more, it breaks my heart to see little children looking at images they don't understand, can't process, fear and have nightmares of; this is a careless abandon on part of parents.
But to the second part, I agree with that as well so long as it is age appropriate. So, how does one know if it is age appropriate? I look at it this way, if they are exposed to tragedy and they can pray, donate, write a letter, pitch in and work, then it is age appropriate. If there is nothing they can do I think it is best to shelter them until later. A five year old can work to give money to a Tsunami victim, send their allowance to help feed the hungry, pray for miracles and mercies etc.
Great post.
Love Dad