This passage on introspection from Lewis is one of the very best observations in the entire book. It’s worth reading it twice. I’ll have a ton more to say about this at some point.
In introspection we try to look “inside ourselves” and see what is going on. But nearly everything that was going on a moment before is stopped by the very act of our turning to look at it. Unfortuntely this does not mean that instrospection finds noting. On the contrary, it finds precisely what is left behind by the suspension of all our normal activities; and what is left behind is mainly mental images and physical sensations. The great error is to mistake this mere sediment or track or byproduct for the activities themselves. That is how men may come to believe that thought is only unspoken words, or the appreciation of poetry only a collection of mental pictures, when these in reality are what the thought or the appreciation, when interrupted, leave behind – like the swell at sea, working after the wind has dropped.
-C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, p.219
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May 29th, 2009 at 5:15 AM
This, I think, more than any other paragraph sums of his revelation on Joy and how it is the thing that points us to God rather than being the thing in itself to be pursued. Ironic when you think about it. It used to be when I walked in the woods I felt the same thing Lewis describes as Joy. I felt close to God. After a while I walked in the woods expecting to feel that sensation and in expecting it, lost it. Only lately as I let go the expectation do I again find it coming back, in some small way. Communing with God used to be much easier when I didn’t know what to look for.
June 6th, 2009 at 3:44 AM
Wonderful quote.
I remember seeing a photo in a magazine of someone reading Surprised by Joy. I immedately knew what it meant, and knew that I had to read that book. I have been haunted by those fleeting encounters with JOY ever since I was a child – and here, at last, was someone with a similar experience. People kind of acted like I was weird, when I tried to talk about such things. But, suddenly, I wasn’t alone in my weirdness. It was very liberating.
I think Wifey’s comment sums it up very, very nicely.